It was quite a week for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who went 5-2 without superstar Matt Kemp, including a three-game sweep of the powerful St. Louis Cardinals over the weekend. A big factor in the Dodgers' big week was ace Clayton Kershaw, who pitched 16 scoreless innings in two starts, and for his efforts won National League Player of the Week honors on Monday.
Kershaw beat the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday, throwing seven scoreless innings, then on Saturday he not only shutout the National League's highest-scoring offense in St. Louis, but Kershaw even added a double himself, the first extra-base hit of his career.
This is the second Player of the Week award for Kershaw, who also captured the weekly honor for the week of June 20-26, 2011, during which he threw a pair of complete games with 11 strikeouts in each win. This season, Kershaw is 4-1 with a 1.90 ERA through his first nine starts.
Kershaw joins Kemp as Dodgers to have won the weekly honor this year, as Kemp captured each of the first two Player of the Week awards this season.
For more news and information on Kershaw and the Dodgers, be sure to read True Blue LA.