Clayton Kershaw Delivers An Impressive Performance In Season Debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers

Fans in Los Angeles did not have to wait any longer for the return of the three-time Cy Young winner, Clayton Kershaw who kicked off his first game in 2024 following surgery on his left shoulder last year.

Kershaw did note before the beginning of the season that his surgery and recovery time would take at least the first half of the season before he was able to start throwing heaters and work on rhythms again. The Dodgers Ace signed a one-year deal worth ten million this past February that keeps him in Los Angeles for his sixteenth season in Dodgers Blue.

While Kershaw was out of action, the Dodgers had a good stretch where they pieced up a lot of teams to make them the number one team in stats for the National League with runs batted in and home runs scored. The Dodgers have the second-best record in the NL and are the third-best team record-wise overall in the MLB.

In the first two innings, Kershaw kept his side scoreless with two batters struck out and only three to make it on base, but it was Kike Hernandez and Austin Barnes in the bottom of the second to get the first run for the Dodgers against the San Fransico Giants and get their offense flowing against their rivals.

In the top of the third, Kershaw found himself in a small slump when he allowed a couple of hits and two runs for the Giants to take the lead before he got back to his groove and struck the next three hitters out to prevent any more damage from happening.

In the fourth inning, the Dodgers were able to take back the offense as Kershaw knocked out a scoreless half on his side to bounce back from the third-inning catastrophe that led to the lead getting taken away by the Giants before Hernandez and Barnes repeated their success from the second inning to take back the lead before the Dodgers pulled Kershaw out of the game before the fifth inning.

Overall, Kershaw pitched four innings in his first game back with the Dodgers in his 2024 debut, he allowed six hits, two runs, and two walks. Kershaw struck out six hitters and had seventy-two pitches under his belt before he was pulled out of the game with the Dodgers having a 3-2 lead against the Giants.

In the end, the Dodgers and Giants had the game tied between them in the top of the eighth inning before Nick Ahmed and Shohei Ohtani hit back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to take back the lead before they closed the game out in the top of the ninth with a strikeout to finish the game with a 6-4 win over the Giants, taking three out of the four games this series before LA has to travel to Houston to take on the Astros on Friday Night, airing live on Apple TV.

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