Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw intends to have a proper start against the New York Mets when he faces them on Tuesday for the second time in less than two weeks.
Kershaw has made just three starts since returning from knee and toe surgeries in the offseason, and his road outing against the Mets on May 23 lasted just two innings before it was interrupted by rain in New York.
The 18-year veteran appears to be trending in the right direction after missing the first two months of the season.
Kershaw showed some rust in his season debut May 17 against the Los Angeles Angels, then had his abbreviated outing against the Mets before giving up one run over five innings against the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday. He was far from satisfied.
“There’s just some stuff I need to hammer down,” Kershaw said. “Just with not feeling my best, I think I created some bad habits last year. And then, I haven’t pitched in a while, so there’s just some growing pains, I think, with the first few.”
In 18 career regular-season starts against the Mets, Kershaw has been impressive, going 11-0 with a 2.00 ERA. He also made two impressive starts vs. the Mets in the 2015 National League Division Series, pitching to a 2.63 ERA in a pair of no-decisions.
Through the first two games their series last weekend, the Dodgers had their offense rolling, as they piled up 26 runs in consecutive victories over the New York Yankees. However, they were held to three runs in a loss to the Yankees on Sunday before falling 4-3 to the Mets in 10 innings on Monday.
Shohei Ohtani drove in two of the Dodgers’ three runs in the Monday contest. He hit a solo home run in the seventh inning, his 23rd to tie the Seattle Mariners’ Cal Raleigh for the major league lead. Ohtani has six homers in his past eight games.
Los Angeles struggled to put together offense against a pair of soft-throwing starters on Sunday and Monday but will face an above-average fastball from New York right-hander Tylor Megill (4-4, 3.52 ERA) on Tuesday.
Megill, a Los Angeles-area native, is 0-1 with a 3.18 ERA in three lifetime starts against the Dodgers. He had a three-inning relief appearance vs. the Dodgers in Game 3 of last season’s NL Championship Series, and he gave up four runs on five hits with three walks.
Francisco Lindor had a leadoff home run for New York on Monday and drove in the final run of the contest with a 10th-inning single. He has four home runs in his past four games.
The Mets have won 27 consecutive games when Lindor has hit a home run. They also have won three of four against the Dodgers — the past three — since falling when the teams met last October in the NLCS.
“It’s a different feeling walking in this place knowing this is where the season ended,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said of Dodger Stadium. “It’s kind of like a sour taste but also understanding that after everything we went through as a team to get to the NLCS, when nobody thought anything of this team, we ended up facing the team that won the World Series. …
“Not trying to look back. Try to win a baseball game and win the series.”
–Field Level Media
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