Following Monday night’s marathon record-setting five hour and 46 minute / 15-inning loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field, a battered and beaten Dodgers bullpen showed signs of fatigue during Tuesday night’s 6-1 loss to those same Dbacks when they allowed three bases-loaded walks. But the cold, hard, and unpleasant reality is that it was Dodgers left-hander and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw who lost Tuesday’s game against their division rivals, not a spent Dodgers bullpen.

For the second times in as many starts, Kershaw was beaten as a result of giving up the long ball; all of them by left-handed batters. In fact, with Tuesday night’s loss, Kershaw is now an un-Kershaw-like 0-2 on the young season. However, in his combined 12.0 innings pitched thus far, the 30-year Dallas, Texas native has struck out 13, walked three, and has a very Kershaw-like 2.25 ERA through those first two starts.

“My mindset doesn’t change every start,” Kershaw told SportsNet LA’s Alanna Rizzo, following his second consecutive loss. “You’re not supposed to give up runs as a pitcher. This one’s on me tonight. I think that first inning, throwing that many pitches, really set me up to only go six [innings].

“After a night like [Monday], six is not going to cut it. You need to get through seven, get through eight,” added the Dodgers ace. “It’s just a tough position to put your bullpen in to cover innings at the end like that. I’ve got to minimize pitches early.”

Kershaw knew immediately that his 0-1 pitch to Diamondbacks second baseman Daniel Descalso in the bottom of the second inning was long gone. (Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

As he so often does, Kershaw gave credit to the opposition for their ability to put together several great at-bats in the first inning.

“Give credit to them, they battled and had good at-bats in the first inning there,” Kershaw said. “I don’t know what it was, but it was probably over 20 (pitches). Especially after a night like last night, you’ve got to be able to minimize pitches and I wasn’t able to do that early.”

It was 23 pitches, to be exact.

Then again, when your teammates put up only one run, garner only four hits, and strand four runners on base (including two in scoring position), it doesn’t really matter who is on the mound against a team that put up eight hits and was given three bases loaded walks by relievers Scott Alexander (one) and Pedro Baez (two).

Alexander entered the game in the bottom of the seventh inning in relief of Kershaw and immediately allowed back-to-back singles to Dbacks shortstop Deven Marrero and catcher John Ryan Murphy. But the real back-breaker was when Alexander walked pinch-hitter Jorge De La Rosa, a starting pitcher, who had been sent to the plate by Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo to lay down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners. Not only did De La Rose not have to sacrifice himself, he would eventually come around to score on the fourth walk (third consecutive) of the inning.

But when you lose by a score of 6-1 and your starter gives up two solo home runs – the second to Dbacks left fielder David Peralta – it really doesn’t matter how many walks your bullpen allows. But what is a surprise is that both of those home runs, and the one that Kershaw allowed in his Opening Day start against the San Francisco Giants five days earlier, were by left-handed batters. What did the 11-year MLB veteran have to say about this?

“I kind of went through this last year early on against lefties and felt like I maybe figured some things out there towards the end (of the 2017 season),” Kershaw answered. “But yeah, I made two mistakes. Hopefully, mistakes stay in the ballpark and tonight they didn’t and ended up costing us the game.”

And what does Dodgers manager Dave Roberts think of Kershaw’s early season woes?

“Yeah, it is (odd), you want to win, well, every game,” said Roberts. “But when Clayton pitches, those are games you really count on winning, and obviously when Kenley [Jansen] gets in a game, you expect to win as well.

“It hasn’t worked out up to this point,” Roberts added. “It’s disappointing because Clayton’s thrown the ball really well. It’s early, we’ve got to go out there and keep competing. We’ve got to have good at-bats and put some runs on the board.”

Yes, you do; this in spite of the fact that the Dodgers have outscored their opponents 22 runs to 16 through their first six games but find themselves 2-4 on the young season and 2.5 games behind the NL West division-leading (wait for it…) Arizona Diamondbacks.

The series finale takes place on Wednesday afternoon at 12:40 PM PT, when Dodgers left-hander Alex Wood squares off against Dbacks lefty Patrick Corbin. The Dodgers will then have a much-needed day off on Thursday, before traveling to the unfriendly confines of AT&T Park in San Francisco for a three-game weekend series against the Hated Ones.

Play Ball!