April 16th, 2019 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka What’s there to say?
We were all hoping (and praying) that Dodgers ace and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw would: A) Get through his first major league start since Game-5 of 2018 the World Series on October 28 unscathed and injury-free; and B) Come reasonably close to our Kershaw-esque expectations of the now 31-year-old Dallas Texas native, three-time National League Cy Young award winner, seven-time All-Star, five-time ERA champion, Triple Crown winner, MVP, Gold Glove winner and Major League Player of the Year.
By every indication Kershaw did indeed come out of his season debut unscathed and injury-free, but it’s probably safe to say that no one expected Kershaw to do what he did on Monday night against the Cincinnati Reds in front of a sold out Dodger Stadium crowd on Jackie Robinson Day.
Kershaw’s line shows that he did not factor in the decision while allowing two runs on two hits – including a first-inning two-run home run by former Dodger Yasiel Puig – while walking none and striking out six in his 7.0 innings of work; doing so on 84 pitches of which 57 were strikes. In other words, Kershaw not only met our expectations, he blew them completely out of the water.
“Everything I had hoped for,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters after the dramatic 4-3 Dodgers win on a Joc Pederson two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. “You saw closer misses with the fastball, the curve was really good, the slider got better as the game went on. He mixed in and out very well. Soft contact. Didn’t make a great pitch with Puig, but outside of that, very, very good for Clayton.”
“Definitely a good first outing back,” said Kershaw. “I’ll take that, especially the way we ended it. It was a fun night all around, other than that first inning. Definitely helps me remember I can do it. Any time first time out, you just want to make sure you can get hitters out again. ‘You can do this, you can succeed. Do it efficiently.’ Things to work on, which is good, but overall, a good first step.”
As noted, by every indication Kershaw indeed came out of his season debut unscathed and injury-free. As for expectations thing?
I’ll let you be the judge of that.
Play Ball!
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Not a good start, giving up that first inning HR to Puig, but after that Kershaw was his brilliant self. Another great game and it couldn’t have ended any better than with Pederson’s walk off HR. A great Jackie Robinson Day.
What a game, aye OBF!
I’m running round the house this morning, joyfully singing…
Did you see Jockie Robinson hit that ball?
It went zoomin’ cross the right-center field wall.
Yeah boy!
Yes, yes. Jackie hits that ball.
Way To Go, Boy’s!
Way To Go!
If only Kershaw approached Game 5 of the 2017 WS the way he did last night against the Reds, heh. He wasn’t even going for the K, either. Totally let his defense do their jobs and kept the pace nice and brisk so the offense can get back to the dugout and keep working away on the opposing starter in the meantime. If THIS is the Kershaw the Dodgers have for the rest of his contract extension, I will gladly accept!
I’ve often said, and I think everybody can agree, Kersh is a smart pitcher. Once he accepts the new reality of his skills he’ll find a way to excel.
Looks like he did both.
Agreed. I also think that staying healthy and having an uninterrupted season will help him maintain consistency. As attaining ultimate feel for manipulating a baseball, basketball, golf-ball or soccer ball is always easier to do when you do them repeatedly. Yeah, I know I forgot football…hey did I mention I forgot football!
Baseball Rules!
To paraphrase Bill Terry:
Is football still a sport?