Clayton Kershaw has a successful rehab start at Oklahoma City

On a lovely evening in Oklahoma City, Clayton Kershaw took the mound at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark and made his first and likely only rehab start in 2017. It was about as good as one could hope and Dodgers are likely going to be very happy about this outing.

Kershaw pitched five innings, gave up a run and two hits. He struck out eight and walked none. He made 64 pitches and 43 were strikes.

Oklahoma City and the surrounding area certainly were pumped for this game, the sold out crowd of 13,106 was the third highest in the history in the ballpark’s history.

After the game, Kershaw spoke to the media and was upbeat about his performance.

“Good, it was fun to get back out there,” Kershaw said, “fun to pitch again, it’s been a long time.” “So I was glad to get back out there and everything felt healthy and good to go so I’m excited about the next one.”

Kershaw reportedly said before going to Oklahoma City that he thought he was ready to pitch in the majors ten days ago and this start did not change those thoughts.

“I feel I’ve always been ready but this is part of the process,” Kershaw said, “and I’m glad to get this under my belt and ready to get up there.”

This was Kershaw’s first Triple-A appearance as he was originally promoted from Double-A to the majors in 2008. Kershaw commented about that particular part of today’s start.

“This is a great ballpark, I had never pitched here,” Kershaw said, “really I had never pitched in Triple-A before, but this was awesome, the ballpark, the facilities for these guys, this was a good experience for me, hope I don’t ever do it again but it was fun.”