The Los Angeles Dodgers again were plagued by shaky starting pitching, with Clayton Kershaw the latest culprit in a 5-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants. Kershaw’s struggles offset A.J. Pollock’s fifth career multi-home run game.
Kershaw initially managed to work his way through plenty of traffic, stranding a combined seven baserunners through three scoreless innings, which included working out of a bases-loaded jam in the first. However, he was up to 64 pitches at that point.
San Francisco broke through in the fourth inning and tied the game on Mauricio Dubon’s solo home run that hit off the foul pole in left field. Kershaw was chased after allowing the first two batters to reach in the fifth.
Dylan Floro was unable to get the Dodgers out of trouble in what amounted to a four-run inning for the Giants. Dubon contributed with a two-run single, went 3-for-4 and finished a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.
Kershaw had six strikeouts but threw 99 pitches in his four-plus innings of work and was charged with three runs. The outing was Kershaw’s shortest since going three innings against the New York Mets on June 23, 2018, in his return spending nearly one month on the injured list with a lower back strain.
The Dodgers’ offense largely consisted of solo home runs from Pollock in the second and fifth innings. The multi-homer game was his first with the Dodgers and first since slugging three against them as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks last season.
After going 6-for-7 with one double, five home runs and nine RBI in his last three games, Joc Pederson cooled off some. His leadoff double in the sixth inning did result in a run on Cody Bellinger’s two-out single that just cleared Dubon’s attempt at a leaping catch.
The Dodgers bullpen closed the game out by retiring 14 consecutive batters in a row, but the deficit ultimately was too much to overcome. Pollock at least made it interesting, taking Will Smith deep for his career-high-tying third home run with two outs in the ninth.
That led to a walk by Russell Martin, but the Dodgers’ Will Smith was unable to replicate his early-season heroics.
