Clayton Kershaw day by day: A no-decision against the Reds

Welcome back to the Kershaw daily, where we look back at every single game of Clayton Kershaw’s career on their anniversary date. He has just one career appearance on June 14.

On June 14, 2011, the Dodgers hosted the Reds at Dodger Stadium.

This was Kershaw’s 100th career game, and 98th start. It was one of six career showdowns with Johnny Cueto, and the second time they matched up in 11 days. That first game was an 11-8 rumble, though this one was more of the expected pitching duel.

Both allowed one run in seven innings, and Kershaw even struck out reigning National League MVP Joey Votto twice. Kershaw nearly allowed two runs when Scott Rolen doubled home Drew Stubbs in the fourth inning, but Jay Bruce was thrown out at the plate by a Tony Gwynn Jr.-Dee Gordon relay.

As Phil Gurnee noted in his game recap, “Clayton Kershaw pitched seven solid four hit innings, leaving the Dodgers tied at 1. Problem is, that when Clayton departs the bullpen comes in, and contrary to Don Mattingly’s point of view, they are not very good.”

After Kershaw left, Blake Hawksworth and Scott Elbert combined to allow a run in the eighth inning, and Cincinnati tacked on another against Mike MacDougal in the ninth, proving too big a deficit for the Dodgers to overcome.

Kershaw allowed one run on four hits in his seven innings. The Dodgers bullpen allowed two runs on five hits in two innings.

The outing: 7 IP, 4 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts

Up next: A quartet of starts on June 15