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Blackmon becomes 1st lefty to hit HR off Kershaw's curveball

Matthew Stockman / Getty Images Sport / Getty

Colorado Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon just keeps reaching new heights this season, and on Saturday night, he did something that had never happened before.

Blackmon drilled a curveball from Clayton Kershaw into the Coors Field seats in the third inning. In doing so, he became the first left-handed hitter to go deep off a Kershaw curve in 2,188 1/3 innings across 332 regular-season games, according to Thomas Harding of MLB.com.

(Video courtesy: MLB.com)

Blackmon was surprised to learn of his feat after the game.

"That's interesting. ... Are you sure?" Blackmon said. "He doesn't throw a lot of curveballs, so that's part of it. I guess it doesn't count. You've gotta do it twice, or it doesn't count."

Kershaw has thrown his curveball 13.7 percent of the time over his career and has increased his usage to 16.7 percent in 2019, according to FanGraphs.

For the Los Angeles Dodgers veteran, the pitch was just a mistake he wishes he could take back.

"The Blackmon homer was a tough pill to swallow," Kershaw said. "It was just the wrong pitch; I shook to it and I take responsibility for that. It was the last thing (catcher Austin Barnes) called and I should have listened to him. I just felt confident about the curveball there, and I thought it was a decent one, and he hit it really well."

The two-run blast wound up being essential for the Rockies, as they held on to win 5-3. Blackmon, who has been on a ridiculous tear at the dish, is now hitting .334/.380/.645 with 19 home runs in 67 games.

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