Clayton Kershaw Dominates In 5-0 Win Over Phillies
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Facing limited options, the Phillies turned to Adam Morgan as a starter. Having overcome injuries and surgery that cost him all of last season, he was grateful for a shot.
Now he's got two losses in three major-league starts.
Clayton Kershaw tossed a 13-strikeout, eight-hit shutout to help the Los Angeles Dodgers win 5-0 Wednesday night, sending the Phillies to a major league-worst 11-33 road record with their ninth shutout of the season.
In the matchup of lefties, Morgan (1-2) gave up five runs and six hits in four innings, struck out one and walked one.
"Kershaw's a great pitcher, but I wasn't scared because he was pitching," Morgan said. "That's a good hitting team."
Morgan gave up a three-run homer to Jimmy Rollins and a two-run shot to A.J. Ellis.
"Morgan wasn't as sharp as we've seen him so far, and he got hurt again by the two home runs," Philliesinterim manager Pete Mackanin said. "The pitch that he (Rollins) hit out was a backdoor slider that just came right across the middle of the plate and a little bit down. It just bent right into his hot zone."
Just two Phillies reached third base. The first came on a wild pitch in the sixth, when Kershaw gave up consecutive singles to Maikel Franco and Darin Ruf before retiring the last two batters on popups. Carlos Ruiz doubled leading off the ninth and moved to third on Freddy Galvis' groundout, but Kershaw retired the final two hitters to close out his first shutout since last July 26, a three-hitter against San Francisco.
Kershaw worked himself out of another jam in the seventh after back-to-back singles by Galvis and Domonic Brown opened the inning. Kershaw then retired the next three batters.
"He was throwing everything for strikes on both sides of the plate. Then he's got that big hook at the end, so it's going to be tough," Brown said. "I'm pretty sure that I hit a double off the curveball at home against him a couple of years ago, so I had the impression that he wasn't going to throw that pitch much. But then he whipped it out that last at-bat."
Kershaw (6-6) walked none and threw 123 pitches. The left-hander hasn't allowed a run in his last 31 innings against the Phillies while making three straight scoreless starts against them.
He earned his 10th career shutout and 18th complete game in his 227th start.
Kershaw, the reigning NL MVP and three-time Cy Young Award winner, is bidding for his fifth straight All-Star selection. He's among five candidates in the fan vote for the final National League roster spot for next week's game in Cincinnati.
A.J. Ellis added a two-run homer, his first of the season for the Dodgers. Rollins had doubled leading off the second.
Ellis was 3 for 4 with a strikeout.
Rollins followed in the third with his three-run shot, extending the Dodgers' lead to 5-0. His two-run single helped the Dodgers to a 10-7 win in the series opener Monday.
STREAKING FREDDY
Galvis went 2 for 4 to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. He's batting .436 with a double, a homer and seven RBI during the run that began on June 29.
Meanwhile, Cesar Hernandez's career-best 12-game hitting streak ended when he was hitless in four at-bats.
UP NEXT
Phillies: RHP Severino Gonzalez (3-2, 8.28 ERA) starts the four-game series finale.
Dodgers: RHP Zack Greinke (7-2, 1.48) makes his last start before the All-Star break.
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