Kershaw solid in Dodgers return: ‘It meant a lot’

LOS ANGELES — Anticipation consumed the better part of his last eight months and excitement colored the better part of his last few days. Then, in the third inning of his first start back at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, Clayton Kershaw encountered a sobering reality: two runs on the scoreboard, two runners on base, nobody out.

It triggered a familiar feeling: survival.

“There’s some part of it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “where you just default to having gone through that — and it’s not about your first start back, it’s not about how you feel. It’s about getting an out and getting out of that inning and minimizing damage. People that have been in those kinds of battles have that to fall back on. That was his only thought in that moment.”

Kershaw came back to record three consecutive strikeouts, limiting damage, setting the stage for another Dodgers victory — this one by a 6-4 score over the division-rival San Francisco Giants — and providing an encouraging sign in his return from shoulder surgery.

Kershaw limited the Giants to just the two runs in a four-inning, 72-pitch outing that saw him scatter six hits and walk three batters. It was an unremarkable pitching line, marred, in Kershaw’s mind, by lacking fastball command. But that third-inning sequence showed that the Kershaw the Dodgers have known over these last few years — the one who can dominate mostly with a fastball-slider combination that rarely exceeds 90 mph — is still in there.

“He’s the same, honestly — from the start of the game to the end of the game,” Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes said. “I think that’s one of his better traits. He doesn’t let off the gas. He’s the same guy. He keeps coming at you.”

Kershaw at times had a difficult time getting his fastball in on opposing right-handed batters Thursday, but he displayed a sharp slider, used his loopy curveball to keep hitters off balance and even flashed a few changeups, the pitch that has famously eluded him. All told, he generated 14 swings and misses and struck out six batters, none bigger than in the top of the third, which began with four consecutive hits but ended on three consecutive punchouts — on a low-and-in slider that scooted past Patrick Bailey, a middle-middle curveball that froze David Villar and an in-the-dirt slider that fooled Thairo Estrada.

Kershaw obliged the early exit, then watched as Nick Ahmed — released by the Giants two weeks ago — and Shohei Ohtani provided back-to-back homers to put the Dodgers on top in the eighth inning, capping a 6-1 homestand coming out of the All-Star break. It was a much happier occasion than what met Kershaw the last time he took the mound at Dodger Stadium — in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Oct. 7, when he was charged with six runs and recorded only one out, setting the stage for a stunning sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Kershaw’s first ever arm surgery — a procedure to repair the gleno-humeral ligaments and capsule in his left shoulder — followed Nov. 3.

Uncertainty hung over him then.

Gratitude enveloped him now.

“To be able to get back out there at Dodger Stadium is something I’ve thought about for a long time,” Kershaw, 36, said. “It meant a lot. It meant a lot. Ellen and the kids were here, too. They were so excited. There’s a lot of people in here that spent a lot of time with me to help me get back, and people back home as well to help. This was really cool, that a lot of people cared so much to help me. And for me personally to go back out and pitch here at Dodger Stadium definitely — not that I ever did before, but I’m not gonna take that for granted again.”

The Dodgers brought Kershaw back near the end of a star-studded offseason, on the heels of adding Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Kershaw was seen then as a luxury. He has since evolved into a necessity. The Dodgers entered the All-Star break with a major league-leading 15 players on the injured list, many of them highly accomplished starting pitchers.

Glasnow returned from the IL on Wednesday, but he’s already nearing a career high in innings. Bobby Miller and Walker Buehler are expected to rejoin the rotation at some point within the next couple weeks, but there is uncertainty about how they’ll perform. Yamamoto, meanwhile, is rehabbing what has been diagnosed as a strained rotator cuff and has yet to get back off the mound.

The Dodgers need an effective Kershaw — now, as much as ever.

“If this is the floor,” Roberts said, “then we’re in for a fun ride with Clayton this year.”