Clayton Kershaw has a successful rehab start at Rancho Cucamonga

RANCHO CUCAMONGA ---  Clayton Kershaw returned to action on Saturday night at LoanMart Field and the best description might be he looked a lot like Clayton Kershaw.

After the game, Kershaw said that if all goes well, his next game will be in his Dodger uniform.

"Think I'm pitching in four days,or five days, Kershaw said, "I think that we're still trying to ironing some stuff out but I think it is more of a pitch count deal."

Kershaw knows with the expanded roster, there are more arms in the bullpen as he builds up his pitch count.

[I'm] making sure that I can contribute," Kershaw said, "not just kind of go out there, it helps that it is September, we have a lot of guys up in the bullpen.

"We're still working the kinks out but we'll see."

Kershaw retired the first seven batters in a row on five strikeouts and two groundouts.  Modesto's Robbie Perkins will remember he singled off Kershaw, actually it was a little dribbler in front of the plate and the catcher Will Smith tried to make a play and threw it wide.

Kershaw rebounded from that play to induce a double play, shortstop to second to first.  With that, Kershaw's line was three innings, one hit, five strikeouts on 34 pitches.

After the game, Kershaw said he felt good and was glad to be pitching in a game.

"Felt good, was able to warm up and sit in between innings and everything, stuff that had kind of bothered me in the past," Kershaw said, "it's fun to kind of pitch in a game setting again, kind of have a normal game type situations, definitely fun to be out there again."

The key will be how Kershaw feels tonight and over the next few days but he remains hopeful.

"Feels good right now and hopefully it stays this way through the night," Kershaw said, "the last few times when I've pitched at times it is after, so once I cool down, kind of sit for a little bit, it will stiffen up, so as long as I am okay doing that tonight, it will be a good test and should be good to go for my next one.

Kershaw threw all of his pitches and he thought given his time off, he will take tonight's outing.

"Fastball and slider were pretty decent, curveball needed a little work," said Kershaw, "wasn't there at times, I threw a couple of good ones but a few of them got away from me."

"I guess for as much time as I missed, I'll take it," said Kershaw, "but you know, once you get up and pitch in real games in the major leagues, there's not going to be so much forgiveness, definitely need to be more consistent."

The Nuts (Rockies) defeated the Quakes 7-3

After Kershaw was done, Dodger left-handed pitcher Brett Anderson made his first rehab appearance since he was put on disabled list on August 23rd with a blister.

Anderson pitched two innings, he gave up six runs and nine hits.  Michael Boyle finished the game with four innings and one run allowed.

Trailing 6-0 at one point, Rancho scored three runs to try and come back, two of the runs were on solo home runs by Yusniel Diaz and Devan Ahart.

The Nuts would score their final run on Josh Fuentes solo home run, Fuentes also had a double and a triple to fall short of the cycle by a single.