Clayton Kershaw, sidelined for the last three weeks with a lower back strain, won't make his scheduled minor-league rehab start on Saturday, as the three-time Cy Young award winner will instead rejoin the Los Angeles Dodgers and take the mound against the New York Mets at Citi Field, the club confirmed.
Kershaw, who was slated to throw four innings for Triple-A Oklahoma City on Saturday, spent Friday working out at Citi Field, and evidently looked sharp enough to compel the Dodgers to activate him without a tuneup in the minors.
On May 31, in his first start back from the DL after missing four weeks with biceps tendinitis, Kershaw tweaked his increasingly finicky back - he missed five weeks last year with the same injury - and was placed on the DL the following day. At the time, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he expected the 30-year-old left-hander to miss more than a month.
Between his two trips to the DL this year, Kershaw managed a 2.76 ERA and 1.12 WHIP across eight starts, notching 53 strikeouts while allowing seven home runs in 49 innings.