Clayton Kershaw Injured: Why Did Dodgers Pitcher Leave In Second Inning?
August 31, 2024
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The Los Angeles Dodgers meandered their way to 80 wins, more than any major league team, without Clayton Kershaw for most of the 2024 season.
They might have to gear up for the postseason without Kershaw too, after the three-time National League Cy Young Award winner left Friday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks after recording only three outs.
Kershaw left in the second inning with what the team called “left big toe pain.” Assuming his left elbow and surgically repaired left shoulder are OK, Kershaw and the Dodgers might have dodged a bullet.
Clayton Kershaw left the game with left big toe pain.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 31, 2024
Kershaw was off his game Friday. He allowed two runs in the first inning while throwing 25 pitches to six batters.
Corbin Carroll led off the bottom of the second inning for Arizona with the Dodgers already leading 5-2. Kershaw started him off with an 87-mph fastball, well below the 89-91 mph velocity he flashed in the first inning.
The next pitch, a 67-mph curveball, landed 427 feet from home plate in the right field bleacher seats at Chase Field.
It was only the fourth time a left-handed hitter had ever hit a Kershaw curveball for a home run. Coincidentally, Carroll became the third member of the elite club last October in Game 1 of the National League Division Series between the Dodgers and Dbacks. Charlie Blackmon (2019) and Matt Adams (2014) are the others.
Dodgers head athletic trainer Thomas Albert came out to visit Kershaw. Soon after, Kershaw was on his way to the visitors’ dugout, his night over.
PHOENIX, ARIZONA – AUGUST 30: Starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw #22 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts after being removed by manager Dave Roberts #30 during the second inning of the MLB game against the Arizona… PHOENIX, ARIZONA – AUGUST 30: Starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw #22 of the Los Angeles Dodgers reacts after being removed by manager Dave Roberts #30 during the second inning of the MLB game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on August 30, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. Kershaw was pulled from Friday’s game with a left big toe injury.
Christian Petersen/Getty Images
In six starts before Friday, Kershaw went 2-2 with a 3.72 ERA. He had walked only eight hitters and struck out 24 in 29 innings. He missed the season’s first three and a half months recovering from surgery on the glenohumeral ligaments in his left shoulder following the 2023 campaign.
Kershaw is a three-time National League Cy Young Award winner and the last full-time pitcher to win an MVP award, in 2014. In 17 seasons, all with Los Angeles, Kershaw is 212-94 with a 2.49 ERA.
Read more: The Dodgers Have a (New) Clayton Kershaw Problem
The Dodgers weren’t counting on Kershaw returning to vintage form as a key to their postseason hopes in 2024. Given the state of their starting rotation, however, he was beginning to look like one of their better options.
Other than trade-deadline acquisition Jack Flaherty (3-1, 3.49 ERA) and rookie Gavin Stone (11-5, 3.33), the Dodgers’ staff offered few sure things.
Walker Buehler (1-4, 5.88 ERA in 11 starts) and Bobby Miller (2-3, 7.25 ERA in 10 starts) have been alternately injured and ineffective. Yoshinobu Yamamoto (rotator cuff) is out on a minor league rehab assignment. Opening Day starter Tyler Glasnow is trying to work back from elbow pain.
It’s unclear who will be available to pitch for Los Angeles in October, and whether they will offer a chance to anchor a World Series-caliber rotation. Even though Kershaw’s injury doesn’t sound serious, he represents a significant question mark now, too.
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