No one is more critical of Clayton Kershaw than Kershaw himself. To anyone else, his 7-3 win over the first place Colorado Rockies on Friday night would be considered a brilliant outing, but to the defending NL MVP and three-time Cy Young award winner, there is room for improvement.

He was so bad that he only struck out 12 in his six innings of work. Yes, he was a lot happier with this start than the last two, but he still felt that he could have done better.

“Tonight the curveball was better,” Kershaw told reporters after Friday night’s game. “The slider, I left a lot up, got a lot of foul balls and just kind of ran the pitch count up.”

Are you kidding me? Twelve strikeouts and he isn’t happy with his performance? That is so… so… Kershaw-like.

Even Rockies slugger Troy Tulowitzki fell victim to Kershaw in the fifth inning of Friday night’s game. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

In his six innings of work, Clayton allowed three runs (one earned) on six hits (two of which were home runs), one walk and the 12 strikeouts. But by the time the sixth inning ended, Kershaw had already made 104 pitches of which 70 were strikes. When he entered the dugout after a scoreless sixth, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly told his ace that he was done for the night. Did Kershaw want to go back out for the seventh inning?

“Yes he did,” said Mattingly during his post-game interview. “But it was a short cconversation.”

Even though his star left-hander wanted to keep going, the Dodgers skipper would have none of that – not with a 6-3 lead at the time and a crucial three-game series with the hated Giants looming large.

But in spite of not being entirely happy with his own performance, the 27-year-old lefty got something from his teammates that has been lacking for the past several years – run support, including a three-run home run from second baseman Howie Kendrick – his first of the season. He also benefited from a pair of RBI doubles from Adrian Gonzalez – the National League’s top hitter at .581.

Kershaw himself hit a double down the right field line in the second inning, although he was left stranded on base.

Kershaw collect his first hit of the season on Friday night – a two-out double down the right field line in the second inning. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

The Dodgers bullpen came up big yet again on Friday night with Paco Rodriguez, Yimi Garcia and Adam Liberatore pitching three shutout innings in relief. Liberatore, who was called up from Triple-A Oklahoma City earlier in the day, pitched a perfect ninth inning with one strike out in his MLB debut.

Adam Liberatore pitched a perfect ninth inning with one strikeout in his MLB debut.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Game two of the three-game series is Saturday night at 6:10 pm PT and will feature Dodgers co-ace Zack Greinke (1-0, 0.69 ERA) against Rockies right-hander Jordan Lyles (1-0, 2.25 ERA). One can only hope that Greinke is as bad as Kershaw was.