LOS ANGELES — Amidst a rash of beginning pitcher accidents, the Dodgers are getting their longtime ace again.
Clayton Kershaw will make his season debut on Saturday at Dodger Stadium towards the Angels, supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned on Tuesday afternoon. Kershaw, 37, has been on the 60-day injured record after having surgical procedures to restore a torn meniscus in his left knee and a ruptured plantar plate in his left huge toe final November.
Kershaw made his fifth and last rehab begin on Sunday. He pitched 4 innings for Triple-A Oklahoma Metropolis, with two hits and two runs allowed, two walks and two strikeouts. He threw 57 pitches.
“It is nice. It is a huge shot within the arm,” Roberts mentioned. “Clayton has labored actually onerous to get wholesome, and the bar is excessive for him. He does not wish to simply come again to be energetic. He needs to come back again and assist us win baseball video games and be good. And so I do know he is excited to contribute.”
Kershaw was at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday and met with a bunch of seven Make-A-Want children, signing autographs and interacting with them earlier than the Dodgers’ sequence opener towards the Athletics.
Kershaw’s return comes at an opportune time for the Dodgers. Blake Snell (left shoulder irritation) and Tyler Glasnow (proper shoulder irritation) are on the 15-day injured record with no set timetable to return, and Roki Sasaki joined them on the IL on Tuesday with a proper shoulder impingement.
Kershaw went 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA in seven begins in an injury-shortened season final yr, his seventeenth within the Majors. He’ll be part of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin Could and Landon Knack within the Dodgers’ rotation.
Dodgers starters entered the sequence with 187 2/3 innings pitched this season, fewest in MLB.
“Simply getting No. 22 again within the rotation is a large shot within the arm of our ballclub,” Roberts mentioned. “With Clayton simply being again, I believe it simply provides a component of certainty and form of efficiency.”
General, Kershaw logged a 2.57 ERA in 5 rehab begins with three associates. He pitched 21 innings, allowed 12 hits and 6 runs, walked 5 and struck out 16.
Roberts mentioned he was impressed with what he noticed in Kershaw’s last outing towards Albuquerque on Sunday.
“I believe that the command the final time wasn’t to his form of requirements or liking, however he nonetheless was very environment friendly,” Roberts mentioned. “Acquired the swing and miss. … I am not too involved about something exterior of getting outs. And that is form of the message that I instructed him.”
