It doesn’t always happen, but it often happens: the Dodgers hit a bit of a skid, and then it’s ‘Kershday’ – the day that 35-year-old future Hall of Fame lefthander Clayton Kershaw takes the mound for the Dodgers – and he often stops the bleeding.

Again, it doesn’t always happen, just often.

It happened again on Thursday afternoon against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark in downtown Cincinnati, when the 33-year-old Dallas, TX native and Dodgers first round draft pick in 2006 out of Highland Park High School in Dallas tossed seven shutout innings, allowing only five hits and walking two, while striking out nine Reds batters on 98 total pitches (of which 64 were strikes), enroute to his National League-leading seventh win of the season; this after four consecutive losses by the Dodgers.

“We lost a few in a row, so we wanted to stop the bleeding,” Kershaw told reporters after the Dodgers 6-0 shutout of the Reds. “The offense did it again today with six runs, so as the starting pitcher, you’ve got to make that hold up.”

Kershaw, and 31-year-old Dodgers right-hander Tayler Scott, made that “hold up.”

“It seems like every time Clayton’s taking the mound it’s like ‘Man, this is a must win,’ ‘He’s gotta go deep, and cover innings,’ and he did just that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said postgame of yet another great ‘Kershday.’ “For him to get through seven and for us to use one reliever today was enormous,” added the Dodgers skipper.

Kershaw’s ninth and final strikeout of the day was also the 2,900th of his brilliant Cooperstown-bound 16-year MLB career.

As for “The offense,” the Dodgers six runs came on 12 hits, with first baseman Freddie Freeman driving in the team’s first (and game-winning) run with his one-out single to left field it the top of the third inning, scoring Dodgers center fielder James Outman from second base. Freeman added another RBI on a sacrifice fly to right field in the top of the fourth inning, allowing Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes to tag up from third base to score the Dodgers sixth run of the game.

The Dodgers open a three game weekend against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Friday afternoon at 4:05 P.M. PT. After a Monday off-day, they then open a six-game homestand at Dodger Stadium, with three against the Chicago White Sox and three against ‘The Hated Ones.’

Play Ball!

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