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Marlins solve Kershaw for his first 6-walk game in 8 years

Gary A. Vasquez / USA TODAY Sports

The Miami Marlins might be one of baseball's bottom-feeders this season, but, for one day, they managed to make life miserable for the great Clayton Kershaw.

Miami patiently outwaited Kershaw for five innings on Wednesday afternoon and worked him for six walks, matching the Los Angeles Dodgers legend's career worst. It's just the third time that Kershaw has walked six in a game, and hadn't done it since April 7, 2010, according to the Baseball-Reference Play Index.

Wednesday was also the first time in six years that Kershaw walked five in a game, and it was just his 10th career five-walk outing overall in the regular season (he also walked five during a start in the 2009 playoffs). The Cincinnati Reds were the last team to work five free passes off Kershaw in 2012.

Incredibly, the 30-year-old entered Wednesday having walked just three batters in his first 33 innings of 2018.

The Marlins loaded the bases twice against Kershaw with no luck, but finally broke through in the fifth when Miguel Rojas hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning.

Although he did strike out seven, Kershaw's night ended after allowing three runs on five hits over his five innings on 112 pitches - only 64 of which went for a strike. His ERA now sits at 2.84 six starts into the season, while his WHIP spiked from 0.97 to 1.13.

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