Dodgers Team News

Dodgers: Dejected Clayton Kershaw Embarrassed by Short Start in Chicago

If we were looking for warning signs for what was going to be an s-show of a day, we look no further than the first inning of the Dodgers’ first loss on Tuesday. Clayton Kershaw struggled right out of the gate, allowing 4 runs to the Cubs, lasting only 1 inning for the first time in his career.

He tossed 39 pitches before his day was done and was left without much in the way of answers for his struggles.



“It just wasn’t good. It’s embarrassing. No excuses. I was horrible.”

The game started innocently enough. Kersh struck out Cubs’ leadoff man Willson Contreras on 3 pitches before the flood gates opened. 

Double
Single
Walk
Single
Double
Walk

Chicago batted around in the first and took advantage of the left-hander who had zero command of his pitches.

“I could overanalyze it and try to think about it. But honestly, I have no idea. [My pitches] were just horrible,” Kershaw said. “Everything was bad. So I’m not going to try to analyze it too much. Just hope this was an outlier and get ready for the next one.”

The Dodgers went on to lose game 1 of the doubleheader by a final of 7-1 before getting upended in a heartbreaker in the nightcap by a final of 4-3. After the game, Dave Roberts felt that the outing was uncharacteristic of Clayton and he too was hopeful that the outing would be an outlier.

What’s Next?

While the team hadn’t had any conversations about what could be coming next for Kershaw, Doc didn’t close the door on the possibility of his ace pitching on short rest in Anaheim this weekend.

“We’ll have that short-rest conversation. We’ll decide in our opinion what is the best for Clayton and the Dodgers here in the next day or two. We’ll talk about it.”

With the loss of Dustin May, the team will have to get a little creative with the rotation that waits for the return of right-hander Tony Gonsolin in the next three weeks or so.

NEXT: Dave Roberts Tries to Explain Matt Beaty Not Getting Starts

Clint Pasillas

Clint Pasillas has been writing, blogging, and podcasting about the Los Angeles Dodgers since 2008. Under Clint's leadership as the Lead Editor, Dodgers Nation has grown into one of the most read baseball sites in the world with millions of unique visitors per month. Find him online on Twitter/X or his YouTube channel!

4 Comments

  1. Yes, Kershaw was off. But Seager booted one and the Dodger rotation is under a lot of stress, given that if they give up more than two runs it’s a guaranteed loss these days.

  2. Rios needs to work things out at the alternate site or in AAA. It is no longer a small sample size problem. Beatty might as well start taking some reps at third base. But since Turner is the only one delivering, maybe now is not the time to be giving him days off. No batter wants days off when the ball is floating in line a beach ball.

  3. Well, he could have gotten out of that inning with minimal damage if Seager got that ball that was hit to him. 99% of the shortstops would have cleanly backhanded that hit. Defensively, Seager is a liability. Lux ain’t much better at 2nd either. Good thing Muncey can jump high enough and pick all their bad throws.

  4. On the bright side the Dodgers probably would have lost anyway, even if Kersh had thrown 8 innings of shut out ball. They’re pretty good at losing.

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