Saturday was the 12th time Clayton Kershaw and Madison Bumgarner started against each other, and it quickly turned into a lopsided affair thanks in large part to Trayce Thompson.
He finished with three home runs and a career-high eight RBI to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 10-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. The multi-home run game was Thompson’s second of his career.
Thompson’s first blast of the night was a grand slam in the first inning that extended the Dodgers’ lead to 5-0. It was notable in that he struggled against left-handed pitching last season and vowed to improve this year, and it came after Bumgarner appeared to yell at home plate umpire John Trumpane to keep Thompson in the box between pitches.
Thompson further padded the Dodgers’ lead with a three-run homer off Kevin Ginkel in the fifth inning.
Kershaw built on a strong start in his final outing of Spring Training as he held the Diamondbacks to just one run and collected nine strikeouts over six efficient innings. Kershaw gave way to Andre Jackson despite only throwing 76 pitches in his first start of the season.
The only blemish was a solo home run by Christian Walker, who has slugged five of them in his career against Kershaw. That’s tied with Nolan Arenado for the most home runs he’s allowed an opposing player.
While Jackson was in the process of completing a three-inning save, J.D. Martinez hit his first home run with the Dodgers by ambushing Cole Sulser for an opposite-field blast to lead off the bottom of the seventh. Thompson then hit his third home run of the game in the eighth inning.
Miguel Vargas went 1-for-2 and broke Gil Hodges’ record for most walks by a Dodgers player in the team’s first three games of a season, since at least 1901. Hodges had six walks in 1958, and Vargas is now up to seven.
Clayton Kershaw passes Mike Mussina in pursuit of 3,000 strikeouts
Kershaw’s nine strikeouts ran his career total to 2,816, good enough to pass Mike Mussina (2,813) for 23rd place on the all-time list. Kershaw could join Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer as the only active pitchers with 3,000 career strikeouts.
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