This story was excerpted from Sonja Chen’s Dodgers Beat publication. To learn the total publication, click on right here. And subscribe to get it repeatedly in your inbox.
After retiring his 14th consecutive Reds batter for the ultimate out of the fifth on Tuesday evening, Clayton Kershaw strode off the mound and again to the house dugout. He had thrown solely 72 pitches, however because the Dodgers batted within the backside half of the inning, Edgardo Henriquez warmed up within the bullpen.
Kershaw sat on the dugout bench till the highest of the sixth, when the bullpen gate opened and Henriquez jogged out to the mound. The veteran southpaw’s evening was formally over.
“I believe it was fairly evident that it wasn’t going to be an extended evening for me,” Kershaw mentioned. “Doc acknowledged that and made the appropriate name, for positive.”
Regardless of putting out six with out strolling a batter throughout 5 innings of one-run ball, Kershaw mentioned after his outing that he knew from the start that he was not working along with his finest stuff. He was in a position to recalibrate and dominate, nonetheless.
Given how Kershaw felt about his stuff, and the truth that he was pitching on common relaxation relatively than the 5 days he is had in between most of his begins this yr, going to the ‘pen after 5 innings made good sense to supervisor Dave Roberts.
In years previous, that call might not have gone over properly. However a part of Kershaw’s evolution within the later seasons of his profession has been recognizing his limits with out letting them maintain him again.
“I believe that Father Time will get everybody, and I believe that he is good sufficient to know what number of bullets he has. And also you need to be good,” Roberts mentioned. “And so I believe that he and I’ve an excellent relationship. We perceive what’s wanted of him, and when to push him, when it is time to sort of pull the plug and get him prepared for the following one.”
The Dodgers’ conscious strategy to Kershaw’s workload seems to be paying off. He put collectively a stellar month of August, going an ideal 5-0 with a 1.88 ERA (six earned runs in 28 2/3 innings). It marked Kershaw’s first private five-game successful streak in a single season for the reason that finish of 2022.
Throughout these 5 August begins, Kershaw threw 395 pitches. Since pitch counts started being tracked in 1988, he’s the one Main League starter with a five-game successful streak in a calendar month on lower than 400 pitches, in response to OptaSTATS.
“It was a great August,” Kershaw mentioned. “Bodily, every little thing feels good. I believe every little thing adjustments from begin to begin generally. However general it was nice. The staff received quite a lot of wins, which was nice. Enjoyable to be part of it this time of yr.”
Led by Kershaw, it has been a powerful general month for the rotation. Getting into Friday, Dodgers starters mixed to publish a 3.28 ERA, the third-best mark within the Majors behind the Cubs and Pink Sox.
With three video games remaining in August, the rotation’s 137 innings are already a season excessive for the unit in a full month. Heading into this weekend, Dodgers starters have pitched 55 2/3 innings greater than the relievers. Beforehand, the most important differential between the rotation and bullpen was 22 2/3 innings in Could.
With Shohei Ohtani stretched out to 5 innings — the place he is tentatively capped in the meanwhile — the Dodgers’ six-man rotation is lastly kind of the group they envisioned coming into the season. After a primary half that noticed accidents to a number of key arms, beginning pitching has grow to be a bona fide energy for L.A. — simply in time for the stretch run.
“It has been a pair, two, three years since we have had this run of well being from the starters, and definitely the efficiency,” Roberts mentioned not too long ago. “And so we sort of needed to climate that early on to get guys again. So that they’ve carried out. They have been nice. And clearly, we worth these guys. And so it is simply made life lots simpler for all of us.”
