Clayton Kershaw has a history of downplaying injuries — it’s simply not in his DNA to acknowledge a possible weakness — so the Dodgers left-hander was entirely in character when he minimized the severity of a “cranky” shoulder that forced him from a June 27 game at Colorado after throwing just 79 pitches over six one-hit, shutout innings.
“For right now, I don’t think it’s too serious,” Kershaw said on that steamy, 90-degree evening in high-altitude Coors Field. “I don’t think I’ll miss a start.”
Six frustration-filled weeks, countless games of catch, several bullpen sessions and two simulated games later, Kershaw finally returned to a big-league mound Thursday night and picked up right about where he left off, giving up one run and three hits, striking out four and walking none in five solid innings against the Rockies in Dodger Stadium.
Recently acquired left-hander Ryan Yarbrough replaced Kershaw and blanked the Rockies on one hit with four strikeouts for three innings, and the Dodgers rallied for a 2-1 victory on Max Muncy’s solo home run in the seventh inning and bases-loaded walk in the eighth.
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Brusdar Graterol retired the side in order in the ninth for his fifth save as the Dodgers (68-46) extended their winning streak to five and won for the ninth time in 10 games.
The score was tied 1-1 when pinch-hitter David Peralta, who won Wednesday night’s game in Arizona with a clutch two-out, two-run single in the eighth inning, led off the bottom of the eighth with a walk off reliever Tommy Doyle.
Peralta was erased on Jason Heyward’s fielder’s-choice grounder, but Mookie Betts lined a hit-and-run single to right-center field to advance Heyward to third. Colorado manager Bud Black replaced Doyle with right-hander Daniel Bard, who walked Freddie Freeman to load the bases with one out.
Will Smith followed with a pinch-hit flare to left-center field, but Rockies shortstop Ezequiel Tovar raced back and made a super over-the-shoulder catch for the second out. Muncy then took a 3-and-1 sinker down and in for ball four, forcing Heyward home with a run that gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.
Rockies left-hander Ty Blach, a sinker specialist with a funky, rapid-fire delivery, blanked the Dodgers on two hits through six innings before leaving a full-count slider up and in to Muncy, who hit a towering homer to right field — his 28th of the season — to lead off the bottom of the seventh, tying the score 1-1.
Black pulled Blach in favor of Doyle, who gave up a single to Chris Taylor, but a spectacular play by Rockies second baseman Alan Trejo helped stifle the Dodgers rally.
With Taylor running on an 0-and-2 pitch, Kiké Hernández blistered a 104-mph up the middle that Trejo made a diving, backhand grab of as his body crossed the second-base bag. But Trejo nicked the bag with a toe, got up and fired to first for a double play that was upheld after an instant replay. James Outman then struck out to end the inning.
Kershaw blanked a Rockies lineup that was hollowed out by the trade-deadline departures of C.J. Cron and Randal Grichuk on two hits through four innings, striking out Michael Toglia looking at a 74-mph curve and Elehuris Montero looking at a rare 85-mph changeup to end the second and retiring the side in order in the fourth.
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He needed just four pitches to retire Trejo and Toglia on ground balls for the first two outs of the fifth but left an 85-mph slider up and over the outer half of the plate to Montero, who drove it 396 feet into the left-center field pavilion for his fourth homer of the season and a 1-0 Colorado lead.
The Dodgers threatened in the bottom of the first when Freeman hit his major league-leading 43rd double to right with one out and Amed Rosario followed with a hard single to left.
But Freeman did not get a great jump after taking his secondary lead off second base and had to hold at third. Muncy then grounded sharply to first base, where Toglia gloved the ball and fired to second to start an inning-ending double play.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
