Clayton Kershaw continued his stellar season by pitching eight innings of work, allowing six hits, an earned run, and striking out nine batters to earn his 14th win of the season against the Houston Astros.
The win set a new career high for Kershaw as he surpassed last year’s total of 13 wins. Kershaw also extended his home winning streak to eight games.
Matt Kemp provided enough offense for Kershaw as he put the Dodgers on board with a two-run home run off Astros starter, Wandy Rodriguez, in the first inning. Kemp now has 27 home runs and 88 runs batted in in his all-star caliber season. The all-star center fielder is just three home runs shy of having his first career 30-30 season, Kemp already has 20 stolen bases for the season.
Tony Gwynn Jr. had three hits tonight, the only Dodger with multiple hits.
Rodriguez settled down after the first inning, only allowing Gwynn’s triple in the second inning as the lone extra base hit of the night. In the fifth inning, Dodgers tagged on two more runs to extend their lead when Kershaw helped his cause by sacrificing into a fielders choice to score Tony Gwynn. Casey Blake then connected on a sacrifice fly to score in Justin Sellers. Sellers had his first career major league hit tonight in the fifth inning.
Astros got on the board in top of the 8th inning by a double from J.D. Martinez that scored in Jason Bourgeois. That was their only run of the night as Kershaw cruised through eight innings in 112 pitches.
Dodgers look to sweep the Astros tomorrow as they send Hiroki Kuroda (7-14) on the mound to face rookie right-hander Jordan Lyles (1-6) at 1:10 PT.
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