Roberts: Kershaw's return counts as 'a win for us'
There's no way that Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was left satisfied with his team's 4-1 loss to the Miami Marlins Friday night. His red-hot team was shut out for eight innings in the first game of a long road swing, and the Dodgers' lead over the rival Giants in the NL West was cut to just four games.
But Roberts did get three innings from ace Clayton Kershaw for the first time since June 26. Having played a fair percentage of this season without knowing whether or not he'd have the southpaw's services again, the sight of No. 22 on the mound helped lessen the blow of defeat for the first-year skipper.
"I think every win is important, but for Clayton to be back on the mound, that's a win for us," Roberts told reporters after the outing.
Kershaw, ever the perfectionist, wasn't having any of the warm feelings in his return from a herniated disk in his back. Though the 28-year-old felt fine physically, the results were less than satisfying for him.
"Not great, obviously," Kershaw said when assessing his performance. "I threw a lot of pitches, averaging 20-plus an inning. Regardless of the pitch count, it would have been a short night. I got to pitch, that's always fun, but I don't want to be a detriment to the team."
| IP | R | H | HR | BB | K | Pit.-Str. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.0 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 66-46 |
Part of his struggles were attributed to rust - Kershaw made just one rehab start at Single-A before Friday - and he's expecting those can be fixed before his next start, and more importantly, before October.
"They better be. I think so," Kershaw said. "I was throwing strikes, they just weren't quality strikes. I wasn't able to finish off at-bats quickly. More than anything, I wasn't able to throw quality strikes consistently.
"A lot of people can throw strikes. That's the reason you walk guys and pitch carefully, nibbling on the edges, but I was in the middle of the plate a lot."
Roberts noted that in his mind, Friday's outing amounted to a "second rehab start," and is still quite content with his club's position - especially now that Kershaw's back in the fold.
"He's as human as we all are," Roberts said. "We're in a good spot. If he'd been three or four scoreless and six punches, that's great. We've still got to look a little deeper than the numbers."