Wednesday was not a good day for Los Angeles Dodgers star and future Hall of Famer pitcher Clayton Kershaw. In just his second start in the 2024 MLB regular season, Kershaw got lit up in the mound by the bats of the San Diego Padres at Petco Park during an 8-1 LA loss.
Kershaw gave up three earned runs (seven unearned) on six hits with a walk issued in just 3.2 innings of work opposite the Padres. Sure, even great pitchers can have bad nights such as the one Kershaw just had. But what's startling about Kershaw's outing is the fact that he failed to record a single strikeout.
One would have to go all the way back to September 2008 to find the last time Kershaw pitched in a game and had zero strikeouts. That was against the San Francisco Giants on the road where he stepped in as a reliever for Hiroki Kuroda in a 3-1 loss to the Giants. Kershaw only saw action there for an inning with two hits allowed and a walk through 13 pitches (via Blake Harris of Inside the Ravine).
“Tonight we saw a pretty big MLB record come to an end. Clayton Kershaw's streak of consecutive games with a strikeout came to an end at 404 It's his first game since September 28, 2008 without a strikeout (he only tossed 1 inning). Only second game in his entire career with no K.”
Just for fun, here are some of the players who played for the Dodgers in that Giants contest: Juan Pierre, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and Chin-Lung Hu. For what it's worth, Tim Lincecum started and got the pitching win for the Giants in that showdown between the National League West division rivals.
In terms of starting duties, this is the first time ever that Kershaw started a game and came up with zero Ks.
“There was a lot of things I was missing,” Kershaw said of his performance against San Diego, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.
“Just wasn’t executing,” Kershaw added. “Wasn’t throwing really anything what I wanted to, where I wanted to. Frustrating overall.”
Kershaw has just returned from a long absence due to a shoulder injury. He only made his first appearance of the 2024 MLB season in last week’s 6-4 win against the Giants at Dodger Stadium where he pitched for six innings and surrendered two earned runs on six hits with six strikeouts.
Kershaw’s age must be catching up to him. Even though he made the All-Star in each of the last two seasons, the 36-year-old southpaw is seemingly no longer the pitcher he used to be.
Social media reactions to Clayton Kershaw's brutal start in Dodgers loss to Padres
“Clayton Kershaw is nothing more than a nostalgia act at this point. If the Dodgers had planned on relying heavily on him in the postseason, then I’ll book my Cancun tickets tonight,” said X (formerly Twitter) user @Klein25.
“Kershaw gave up a real hit to Bryce Johnson yeah he’s definitely cooked,” shared @TooMuchMortons_.
“Kershaw is cooked. Should have retired. I get it though, try and hang on as long as possible to win a real World Series. I would have kept trying too, ” posted @PatrickDailey.
“has the day finally come where kershaw is done dominating us every single start for the last 16 years?” wondered @j_murray19.
Follow Us
Subscribe
