Dodgers survive Clayton Kershaw’s early exit, hold off Diamondbacks

PHOENIX — Clayton Kershaw might be a medical marvel.

The 36-year-old left-hander has endured recurring back problems, an injury to the teres major muscle behind his left shoulder, inflammation of the sacroiliac joint, tendinitis in his biceps, an impingement in his hip flexor, a strained forearm for which he received a PRP injection and nearly went under the knife and a shoulder injury that finally did require surgery last November.

There have undoubtedly been countless other aches and pains that never found their way onto his medical rap sheet.

Add a toe to that list.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner faced just seven batters against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night before leaving with pain in his left big toe. After the game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said “it’s a bone spur” and something Kershaw has been dealing with for “a couple years, off and on.”

“It’s obviously not good. There’s swelling. There’s pain. He’s doing everything he can to kind of get through,” Roberts said. “Some starts, it feels fine and it’s not impeding. Today certainly it was. He just … he had nothing. No legs today obviously. Then you start worrying about how it could affect his arm.”

The pain lingered for the Dodgers. Kershaw retired just three of the seven batters he faced, leaving behind eight innings for the Dodgers’ bullpen to cover. It was almost too much to ask. The Dodgers’ offense provided ample cover with three home runs but a four-run ninth inning by the Diamondbacks left the bullpen running on fumes and the Dodgers clinging to a 10-9 win.

“Got to click it off, one at a time. You can’t think about the end. It’s one pitch at a time. One out at a time,” said left-hander Alex Vesia, one of eight pitchers used by the Dodgers on Friday. “Our bullpen was awesome tonight. Everybody.

“The respect that I have for all of us, all the bullpen guys, is top tier. We have some absolute dogs in our bullpen. Circumstances like this is where it comes out. It’s awesome.”

Making his seventh start since returning from shoulder surgery, Kershaw took the mound for the opener of a four-game series at Chase Field, an important faceoff between the division-leading Dodgers and their closest pursuers, the Diamondbacks who started the night four games back in the National League West.

The Dodgers gave him a 2-0 lead thanks to a two-run home run by Freddie Freeman in the first inning. But four of the first five Diamondbacks reached base against Kershaw on a double, walk, single and hit batter. Two runs scored and the Dodgers’ first lead was gone.

“I just couldn’t really push off,” Kershaw said, declining to be specific about the injury or how long he’s been dealing with it. “It’s frustrating when everything seems to be feeling great. But no matter what I did I couldn’t find a comfortable way to push off on my toe. It’s super frustrating obviously to put the team in a really tough spot, having the bullpen cover eight innings.

“They battled and grinded. The bullpen is hanging after today. Obviously I’m disappointed to be the culprit behind that. But they did an unbelievable job and it was a big win for us.”

Roberts said he had a conversation with Kershaw after that first inning and Joe Kelly was already warming up in the Dodgers’ bullpen when Corbin Carroll led off the second inning against Kershaw and sent an 0-and-1 curveball that was floated up there at 67.4 mph down the line and deep into the right-field seats for a home run.

Roberts and head trainer Thomas Albert went to the mound as Carroll completed his trip around the bases. Kershaw left immediately with Albert.

Kelly entered with the Dodgers leading 5-3 and was all over the place as he let that lead disappear. He threw 46 pitches, retired five batters, gave up three hits, walked two batters, hit two others and let one run score on a balk when he disengaged from the rubber one time too many with runners on.

The Dodgers’ bullpen was hardly fresh after pitching 11⅓ innings in the three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles and Roberts had hoped to stay away from at least three individual relievers based on usage. Every one but Evan Phillips pitched Friday.

“Tonight was pretty dicey,” Roberts said. “You just don’t have much margin.

“Alex doing an up-down isn’t ideal. Huddy doing a back-to-back, he hadn’t pitched in eight days. There was a lot of things that weren’t part of the plan.”

The Dodgers scored five times in the first two innings against Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen and regained the lead in the sixth inning when Max Muncy led off with a double. He moved to third on a ground out then scored on a wild pitch by lefty reliever Joe Mantiply with Shohei Ohtani batting.

They put some distance between themselves and the Diamondbacks with a three-run home run from Will Smith in the seventh inning. It was just the second home run for Smith since July 6, a stretch of 34 games during which he has batted .171 (21 for 123).

Ohtani has homered much more frequently and he went deep on an 0-and-2 fastball from Paul Sewald in the eighth.

It was the 11th time this season Ohtani hit a home run and stole a base in the same game, two short of Rickey Henderson’s record for those games (13) set in 1986. Ohtani now has season totals of 43 home runs and 43 stolen bases. It is the highest combination ever in those two categories.

The Dodgers needed every one of those runs when an overworked Anthony Banda – the last reliever Roberts felt he had – struggled in the ninth inning, allowing four runs before closing it out.

Roberts said Kershaw could “potentially” end up on the injured list with this injury but reinforcements are definitely on the way, regardless.

“We pitched guys tonight that we were really trying to stay away from, but we had to finish the game and cover the game,” Roberts said. “I’d be shocked if we don’t have to make a move or two tomorrow.”