Clayton Kershaw day by day: A split

Welcome back to the Clayton Kershaw daily, where we look back at every single game of the Dodgers left-hander’s career, based on the date they happened. He has started twice on May 26 in his career.

Kershaw’s first such start came in 2013 against the Cardinals, a Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers got two runs early on an Adrian Gonzalez home run in the first inning, but St. Louis stormed back in the second with a bases-loaded double by Pete Kozma. It was one of three doubles on the day for Kozma, tying a Dodger Stadium record. He also singled.

Kershaw allowed a fourth run in the seventh, when Kozma doubled again and Matt Carpenter singled him home.

From my game recap:

Kershaw saw his streak of 22 consecutive games with three or fewer earned runs allowed snapped, as he allowed four runs in his seven innings. Entering the game on Sunday, Kershaw had yet to allow a run or a walk in his two daytime starts, over 17 innings.

This was the first of four starts for Kershaw against the Cardinals that year. He pitched reasonably well in three of them and allowed no home runs, but had a 5.09 ERA and four losses, including twice in the NLCS.

Kershaw’s next May 26 start came in 2015 against the Braves at home, the middle game of a three-game, midweek series perhaps most known for Juan Uribe getting traded across clubhouses. Uribe played Monday for the Dodgers, and Wednesday for Atlanta.

But Tuesday was Kershaw’s night. He retired the first 12 hitters of the game. By the time he allowed his first hit, the Dodgers were already up 6-0, a scoring flourish that included an RBI single by Kershaw.

He only allowed four hits in his seven innings, and no runs. Kershaw struck out 10.

Kershaw had a high ERA at this point in 2015, at 3.86 even after the seven scoreless innings in this one. But dig a little deeper and notice he led the majors with 83 strikeouts in 65⅓ innings, to go with a 2.61 FIP and 2.19 xFIP. From my game recap:

After four straight starts getting removed in the middle of an inning, Kershaw went out on his terms, pitching seven clean innings, allowing only four hits, throwing 101 pitches.

“I feel like I’ve defended him a lot,” Mattingly said of Kershaw, after the game, “but he doesn’t need defending.”

The outings

2013 (L, 5-3): 7 IP, 7 hits, 4 runs, 3 walks, 5 strikeouts

2015 (W, 3-3): 7 IP, 4 hits, 10 strikeouts

Up next: Two quality starts on May 27, 10 years apart