Clayton Kershaw day by day: Out-dueling Ubaldo Jimenez

The lone May 9 start for Clayton Kershaw came 10 years ago today, and it was a classic duel with Ubaldo Jimenez of the Rockies on a Sunday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

Sure, these posts are generally about Kershaw, but it’s important to note just how on fire Jimenez was in the first half of 2010. For one, he entered this start with a 0.87 ERA which included two total runs in his two Coors Field starts to date.

Jimenez had two scoreless streaks over 25 innings, and ended his first three months of the season with a 1.83 ERA. His ERA was only that high thanks to 10 runs in his last two June starts. Heading into the All-Star Game — which he started, obviously — Jimenez was 15-1.

That “and one” came courtesy of Kershaw the Dodgers.

Remember, this was the first start for Kershaw after his disaster outing against Milwaukee, in which he allowed seven runs and recorded five outs. With two walks and a single in the first inning, things could have gone very badly for Kershaw in this one too, but he struck out Ian Stewart to end the threat.

But after that, there were no threats. From my game recap:

Kershaw struck out nine batters today, but even when the Rockies hit the ball, they never hit it squarely. Their two hits were of the infield variety, and Kershaw induced six infield pop outs. The first Rockie to hit a ball to the outfield off Kershaw was Clint Barmes, who did so in the eighth inning.

This was before he won any Cy Young Awards, but this was a vintage Kershaw start. No balls out of the infield until the eighth inning is insane, and shows just how dominant he was on this day.

Jimenez allowed only one run, delivered in the form of a Blake DeWitt double and Jamey Carroll single, which is nearly the most 2010 Dodgers sentence possible. Russell Martin added a solo home run for insurance against the Rockies bullpen in the eighth inning, for a 2-0 win.

The outing (W, 2-2): 8 IP, 2 hits, 3 walks, 9 strikeouts

Up next: The Rockies again, this time in 2015, and this time at Coors Field.