Clayton Kershaw pitched like the reigning two-time National League Cy Young Award winner Tuesday night, while Julio Teheran pitched like a talented but frustrating pitcher still prone to some awfully ugly innings and short outings.
Kershaw was perfect through four innings and dominant through seven in an 8-0 win against the Braves, who lost for the seventh consecutive time at Dodger Stadium and fell to 2-11 in their past 13 against the Dodgers, including the 2013 division series.
Teheran (4-2) was charged with 10 hits, a career-high eight runs and three walks with one strikeout in 4 1/3 innings, his worst start of a season in which the opening-day starter has compiled a 4.91 ERA and pitch poorly as often as he’s pitched well.
“The execution of pitches, the ones I saw on the Jumbotron, were just balls out over the plate,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “These guys swing the bat real well. Execution was not as good as we’ve seen him, and that’s something we need to work on. He needs to get better on that kind of stuff.”
Meanwhile, Kershaw (3-3), who came in with a 4.32 ERA, just needed to get back to what he’s done in the past, and against the Braves he did. He allowed four hits and no walks with 10 strikeouts in seven innings.
“If he throws like he threw today he’s not going to have a 4 (ERA) for very long,” Braves veteran Jonny Gomes said. “He’s obviously well-decorated, and that’s why. We saw a bunch of pitches off him, we battled. Guys like that, top three or four guys in the league — I mean, we saw our guy Shelby Miller be on a couple of times; he (Kershaw) ran that same outing out. The game got out of hand, so he started playing with a little house money there at the end. Tip your hat.”
Kershaw has a microscopic 0.62 ERA in his past four starts against the Braves, including postseason. In those games he has allowed two earned runs with four walks and 37 strikeouts in 29 innings.
Teheran, on the (extreme) other hand, is 0-4 with an 8.46 ERA in four career starts vs. the Dodgers, including postseason. He’s allowed 21 earned runs and 32 hits in 22 1/3 innings against them.
Teheran faced the minimum nine batters through three innings, then 10 batters in a six-run, six-hit fourth that included RBI doubles by Howie Kendrick and A.J. Ellis, a two-run double by Andre Ethier, and Kershaw’s own two-out RBI single.
It was the highest-scoring inning of the season for the Dodgers, who’ll go for their second consecutive Dodger Stadium sweep of the Braves on Wednesday.
“I have to keep fighting and working and trying to get better,” Teheran said. “Every time I get a bad outing it’s in one inning that I get in trouble. I’ve got to try to work on this thing and just try to get back.”
His outing got worse in the fifth, when Adrian Gonzalez hit a two-run homer that pushed him past 1,000 career RBIs and ended the worst start of the season for Teheran, who’s had several. That it was only his second loss in six decisions was a reflection not of his performance so much as robust run support in most of his starts.
Teheran has allowed 10 hits three times in his past six starts, lasting 5 2/3, five, and 4 1/3 innings in those 10-hit games.
“I’ve never been through this kind of thing,” he said. “Just trying to learn from it and try to do my best, trying to work hard and hopefully get back where I want to be, like I did last year.”
Kershaw led the league in ERA each of the previous four seasons, including a 1.83 ERA in 2013 and a 1.77 ERA in a 21-win season in 2014. Against the Braves, the left-hander pitched like that guy, rather than one who had a 5.94 ERA in his past three starts before Tuesday.
The Braves didn’t have a runner reach base until Nick Markakis’ leadoff single in the fifth. Kershaw induced a groundout and struck out Christian Bethancourt with two in scoring position to end the inning with a 6-0 lead intact.
Kershaw got back on track against the Braves, and so has the Dodgers’ offense in the first two games of a three-game series.
The Dodgers had gone two weeks without overcoming any deficit past the second inning until Monday, when they hit as many homers (three) in a six-batter span against reliever Nick Masset in the eighth inning as they had in their previous eight games combined.
They hit .214 and totaled 23 runs while going 4-7 in an 11-game stretch before this series. But they’ve gotten back to form against the Braves, whom they’ve beaten eight of nine times since the beginning of the 2014 season.
Although Teheran got nine outs in nine batters through three innings, he gave up two hits and a walk in that span. Christian Bethancourt threw out Jimmy Rollins trying to steal second base on a strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out double play to end the first inning, and in the second inning Teheran picked off Alex Guerrero at second base on the Andrelton Simmons back-door move that keeps working for Teheran.
Guerro doubled to start the second inning and A.J. Ellis followed with a walk before Kershaw bunted into an inning-ending double play. Teheran had the unique distinction of giving up a double and walk to start an inning and still getting out of it after facing only three batters.
But that was as good as it got for Teheran, whose fortunes were reversed abruptly in the fourth, beginning with Joc Pederson’s bloop leadoff single. After that, there were no cheapie hits off Teheran, as the Dodgers teed off on the right-hander.
