That was good enough for the Los Angeles Dodgers. They had muscle to spare against the New York Mets.
Kershaw and Jacob deGrom stumbled in an unexpected ace showdown Brandon Parker Color Rush Jersey , Matt Kemp hit a pinch grand slam and the Dodgers won 8-3 on Saturday night.
The Dodgers have won 11 straight against the Mets dating to May 2016, matching their best run in the rivalry. Los Angeles beat New York 11 straight times in 1963-64.
Kershaw gave up two runs over three innings in a surprise return from a lower back strain. He threw 55 pitches, starting out strong before laboring through his final inning.
”Good to be back,” Kershaw said. ”Now I can focus on getting better.”
Left-handed rookie Caleb Ferguson (1-1) replaced him and escaped a couple tight situations over four scoreless innings for his first major league win.
DeGrom (5-3) allowed three earned runs in six innings, including Max Muncy’s 14th home run in the first. He entered the game with a major league-leading 1.51 ERA and hadn’t allowed three earned runs in a game since April 16 against Washington.
New York has lost five straight overall and 12 of 13 at home. The Mets have scored four or fewer runs in 15 straight home games dating to May 20. Some fans at Citi Field were wearing paper bags over their heads by the end of the game.
”It was tough tonight,” said Brandon Nimmo, who had three hits for New York.
Kemp cleared the bases during a five-run eighth inning with his eighth career slam and 13th home run this season. Chris Taylor had a key two-run pinch double, and Los Angeles won for the 24th time in 33 games.
KERSHAW BUILDING UP
Kershaw was scheduled to make a rehab start with Triple-A Oklahoma City at Omaha, but Los Angeles decided Friday to have him pitch in New York because of precarious weather in Nebraska. The lefty ace had been sidelined since June 1.
Kershaw was electric in the first inning, freezing leadoff man Nimmo on a curveball for a three-pitch strikeout and catching Todd Frazier looking for a five-pitch K.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner wasn’t as sharp after that. Michael Conforto and Jose Bautista lined consecutive doubles in the second inning to tie it at 1, and Kershaw threw 25 pitches in the third inning, including an RBI single by Wilmer Flores to put New York ahead 2-1.
Kershaw struck out four, walked one and allowed five hits before Taylor hit for him in the fourth. Kershaw was expected to be limited to roughly 60 pitches, and he threw an extra simulated inning inside after being replaced.
”The most important thing, he came out of it feeling good Joe Thomas Jersey , feeling strong,” manager Dave Roberts said.
FERGUSON’S ”GOOD TREND”
Ferguson struck out six, walked one and allowed three hits. The 21-year-old worked out of trouble in the fifth and seventh innings. The latter jam emerged when Cody Bellinger badly misplayed Nimmo’s low liner to center, leading to a one-out triple. Ferguson then struck out Frazier and got Asdrubal Cabrera to ground out.
Ferguson dropped his ERA from 7.59 to 5.52 in his first career relief appearance – he’d previously made three starts. Roberts said Ferguson has shown a ”good trend” of looking more comfortable with each outing.
”He’s handling himself considerably better each time out there,” Roberts said.
JOEY BATS
Bautista hit a solo homer off Yimi Garcia in the eighth inning, his fourth this season.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Dodgers: RHP Walker Buehler (4-1, 2.63) is still dealing with soreness from a right rib microfracture. Buehler nixed a scheduled bullpen session Saturday, and Roberts said he may throw it Sunday if there’s improvement. … LHP Adam Liberatore was optioned to Triple-A to make space for Kershaw.
UP NEXT
LHP Rich Hill (1-2, 4.99) starts the series finale for the Dodgers. Jason Vargas was supposed to start for New York, but the Mets placed him on the DL with a strained calf late Saturday night. The team expected to name a replacement starter early Sunday.
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Follow Jake Seiner at Saints linebacker Alex Anzalone hopes he’s done seeing promising seasons snuffed out prematurely by his troublesome right shoulder.
”It was fixed really well this time,” Anzalone asserted after New Orleans’ offseason practice on Thursday. ”My shoulder dislocated, but it was fixed differently.”
If ”differently” means better, Anzalone’s return could be a significant boon to a young defense that improved considerably during the Saints’ playoff run last season.
”We were really pleased last year, early in the year, when he was playing Rashaan Evans Titans Jersey ,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. ”He’s smart. He’s someone that has good range. He can play on three downs. He’s someone who we think is a good player on third down. That gives you flexibility at linebacker.
”The key, for him, is just staying healthy.”
Twice during an unfulfilled career at Florida, the 6-foot-3, 241-pound Anzalone dislocated his right shoulder. Those injuries were major reasons why he played just 18 games in four seasons with the Gators. Yet, when he played, his talent was so apparent that the Saints used one of two 2017, third-round draft choices last year to select him.
That bet appeared to be paying off when Anzalone’s speed and ability to correctly read and quickly react to plays stood out during training camp, earning him a starting nod as a rookie in Week 1.
Four games into the season, however, Anzalone extended his right arm during a diving tackle attempt against Miami and the shoulder gave out – again. He landed on injured reserve, ending his season.
”It wasn’t anything too unfamiliar,” Anzalone said. He noted that his generally optimistic outlook on life, combined with his prior experience with shoulder rehabilitation, helped him deal with the injury.
”It was fine. I have a good attitude about life. My parents instilled that in me as a kid Authentic Pernell McPhee Jersey ,” Anzalone said. ”You feel bad for a little bit, and life goes on.”
Anzalone stands out on the field in part because of his long, blond hair that gives him a surfer-dude look. In reality, a visceral fear of sharks prevents the Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, native from venturing out in the ocean very often.
Instead, he’s spent a lot of down time studying the game he loves.
”Staying in meetings after getting hurt was helpful,” Anzalone said. ”Talking to the (veterans) and still learning, watching film and doing all that stuff was definitely beneficial.”
Anzalone was one of three rookie starters on the Saints’ defense last season, including cornerback Marshon Lattimore, who was the 2017 Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Lattimore said he was impressed by the athleticism Anzalone brought to the linebacker position.
”He’s very versatile. He can hit you or he can cover you, so we’re going to get a great player back,” Lattimore said. ”We missed him a little bit during the season, but now that he’s back, hopefully he’s 100 percent.”
Anzalone said he senses among his teammates and coaches that ”there is a lot of expectation” for how he’ll contribute this season to a team with aspirations of Super Bowl contention.
He also subscribes to the notion that the Saints Eagles Cheap Jerseys , given his injury, ”took a chance on me, and I wanted to live up to that.”
But Anzalone said he has never felt overwhelmed by the transition to the NFL or the pressure to perform.
”A lot of it goes into how much you care about the game and how much you care about making mistakes and learning from your mistakes and continuing to grow,” he said.
Even during the first, voluntary, non-contact practices of this offseason, Anzalone said, he ”has been a lot more comfortable than Year 1.
”I’m confident. I think I was confident last year,” Anzalone said. ”You just do your best at what you’re asked to do. That’s really all there is to it. That’s kind of how I live my life.”
NOTES: Lattimore covered his former Ohio State teammate, Michael Thomas, during 11-on-11 drills Thursday in a matchup of players who were first-time Pro Bowl selections last season. Thomas’ back-shoulder catch near the sideline despite tight coverage by Lattimore was among the more memorable plays of the session. Later, Lattimore grinned as he said he has held his own against Thomas during the majority of offseason practices that have not been open to media. ”He’s going to get me sometimes and I get him sometimes,” Lattimore said. ”But he kind of tried to show off a little bit for the cameras.”
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