Clayton Kershaw just took another big step towards the Cy Young Award.
Kershaw once again completely overwhelmed the competition, hurling a complete game in downing the Padres, 4-1. The win ups his mark to 17-5 with a 2.45 ERA. The 17 wins is tied for Ian Kennedy for tops in the National League, and his 212 strikeouts are still the best.
The Dodgers got things going in the first with a run. Once again it was started by the great Matt Kemp, who took a walk with two outs, then stole his 35th base. After Juan Rivera took a walk, Andre Ethier stopped whining long enough about Don Mattingly to stroke an RBI single to make it 1-0. Of course, he was caught in a rundown as Kemp scored, which led to Rivera doing the same and getting tagged for the last out. But hey, at least he got a hit.
A couple more runs were tacked on in the third. Justin Sellers hit in the leadoff spot, and he walked with one down. James Loney has been on a tear lately, and it continued with a long two-run homer, and it was 3-0. The tater increased his hitting streak to eight games, and bumped his average from .254 to .275.
The only blemish of the night for Kershaw came in the fourth. The O-Dawg, Orlando Hudson, led off with a double off the left field wall to start. Kershaw got the next couple of outs, but Nick Hundley came through with an RBI double, cutting it to 3-1.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Dodgers got that run right back. Ethier again got a big hit, as he hit a leadoff double. A groundout by Aaron Miles got him to third, and Rod Barajas got him home on a sac-fly RBI, making it 4-1.
Even with five innings left to play, you got the feeling that the Padres knew they had two chances of coming back: slim and none... and slim just took a hike! He induced a double play from Mat Latos in the fifth, and after getting around a walk to Jason Bartlett with two outs, he didn't allow a runner until the ninth.
In the ninth, Hundley singled with two outs, then went to second on fielder's indifference, then to third on a wild pitch. Kershawn went to his off-speed stuff to strikeout Lance Forsythe to end the game. Overall, he gave up only six hits, one run, two walks, and five strikeouts while making 118 pitches.
While Kershaw was certainly in control, he can give a big assist to the defense behind him for turning three great double plays. Sellers started one to end the second on a hard hit ball by Forsythe. Will Venable tapped back to the mound which turned into two outs in the third. The best was the last one in the fifth. Latos grounded to Loney at first, who fired to Sellers at second for the first out, then back to Jamey Carroll covering first for next out. Three very slick plays overall.
With one month left in the season, Kershaw probably has about five starts left. Assuming he goes on regular rest, it looks like he'll pitch against the Braves, Giants, Diamondbacks, Giants again, and Padres. So, four of those starts are against teams fighting for the playoffs. If he can get through those while looking like his normal self, not only will he play the spoiler role, but he has a fantastic chance at getting the Cy Young Award.
The Dodgers have now taken six of their last seven, and are locked up with the Rockies for third in the NL West. Hiroki Kuroda will get the start on Tuesday. He's won three straight after finally getting some run support he desperately deserved.
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