Clayton Kershaw day by day: All-Star zeros in New York

We are in the usual down time of a normal MLB season, right around when the All-Star break usually falls, so it’s understandable that Clayton Kershaw doesn’t have any regular season starts on July 16 (or July 17, for that matter).

But he does have one All-Star Game appearance on this date, seven years ago at Citi Field in New York. This was another prime opportunity for the best pitcher in baseball to start an All-Star Game, but instead that honor went to Matt Harvey of the host Mets, who had a good case of his own.

This was Kershaw’s third straight All-Star appearance, and he was tasked with pitching the third inning.

Kershaw induced three fly ball outs in the frame — J.J. Hardy to left center, Mike Trout and Dustin Pedroia to right.

From my All-Star recap:

It took 14 pitches, including nine strikes, to pitch his scoreless inning, his third consecutive scoreless All-Star appearance. The only other Dodgers pitcher with a scoreless All-Star appearance in three straight years was Fernando Valenzuela, who threw six scoreless innings with nine strikeouts from 1984-1986.

The outing: 3 up, 3 down

Up next: Nothing doing on July 17, but Saturday is busy