Clayton Kershaw day by day: The top 50

Welcome back to the Clayton Kershaw daily, where we look back at every career game of the longtime Dodgers great, on the anniversary. July 5 is a single-start day for Kershaw, with his lone start on this date coming last year.

The Dodgers hosted the Padres in the second-game of a long weekend series at Dodger Stadium, their final series before the All-Star break. Kershaw was headed to the midsummer classic for the seventh year in a row.

San Diego scored all their runs off Kershaw in the second inning, which began with pitcher Eric Lauer reaching on catcher’s interference. The bigger blows were by Fernando Tatis Jr. (a single) and Eric Hosmer (an RBI double).

On a mistake-filled night at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers tallied their runs one at a time, aided by an error in right field (in the third inning), and a wild pitch (in the sixth).

Kershaw left after seven innings in a tied game, and reached a milestone of sorts along the way.

From Elizabeth Islas’ game recap:

Kershaw struck out a total of nine batters, which brought his career strikeout total to 2,371, claiming the No. 50 spot on the all-time strikeout list. The 31-year-old is just 25 strikeouts away from tying Dodger great Sandy Koufax (2,396) at No. 49.

The eighth inning featured a Venn diagram of what both Yimi Garcia and Hunter Renfroe were most known for in 2019 — a solo home run, that gave the Padres a 3-2 win.

The outing: 7 IP, 5 hits, 2 runs (1 earned), 1 walk, 9 strikeouts

Up next: A rare July clunker