LOS ANGELES—Clayton Kershaw outpitched Jhoulys Chacin with 6 2-3 gritty innings to win his fourth straight start, Matt Kemp drove in two runs and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies 3-2 on Tuesday night for their fourth consecutive victory.
Kershaw (12-4) threw a career-high 125 pitches in his 105th big league start, allowing two runs and eight hits and striking out six. The 23-year-old left-hander, who appeared in his first All-Star game two weeks earlier, is 7-0 with a 1.65 ERA in his last 10 starts at Dodger Stadium, where he hasn’t lost since St. Louis beat him 9-2 on April 16.
Kershaw increased his major league-leading strikeout total to 173, four more than Detroit’s Justin Verlander, who fanned seven against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night.
Matt Guerrier retired all four batters he faced and Kenley Jansen pitched a perfect ninth for his second save in three attempts. Regular closer Javy Guerra got the night off after posting a victory and two saves in the previous three games.
Chacin (8-8) was charged with three runs—one earned—and three hits in six innings. The right-hander is 0-4 with a 4.87 ERA in seven starts since winning his previous three outings, including a 6-5 decision over the Dodgers in which he pitched eight scoreless innings of three-hit ball before the bullpen gave up five runs in the ninth.
Kershaw worked with runners on base in every inning he pitched. The Rockies got to him in the fifth when Todd Helton drove in Dexter Fowler with Colorado’s third straight two-out single. It ended a string of 27 consecutive innings in which Kershaw did not allow an earned run. Kershaw was lifted after Helton’s seventh-inning groundout drove in the Rockies’ second run.
Troy Tulowitzki led off the Rockies’ fourth with a ground-rule double over Kemp’s head. But Ty Wigginton struck out, and Kershaw retired Mark Ellis and Ryan Spilborghs on grounders to shortstop.
The first two batters Kershaw faced broke their bats hitting ground balls. Jonathan Herrera reached safely when Juan Rivera dropped the throw from shortstop Rafael Furcal and Helton walked. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch, but they had to stay put on Tulowitzki’s groundout to first base, and were stranded when Wigginton struck out.
Wigginton has only four RBIs in 58 at-bats over his last 20 games, and is batting just .173 with runners in scoring position this season (14 for 81).
Wigginton’s evening got worse when he camped under Furcal’s lazy flyball leading off the fourth and dropped it trying to make a one-handed catch. Los Angeles capitalized with the first three runs of the game, two of which were unearned.
Kemp doubled home two, then got to third on a groundout and scored on a sacrifice fly by Juan Rivera.
Notes: Kershaw’s overall ERA is 2.72. The only other time he threw at least 120 pitches was April 21 against Atlanta, when he made 122 over 8 2-3 innings in a game the Dodgers won 5-3 in 12. … Chacin is 3-2 with a 0.79 ERA in his last five starts against the Dodgers, including three scoreless outings in which he went eight innings twice and seven the other time. … The Rockies placed five-time All-Star Jason Giambi on the 15-day DL Tuesday, after he strained his left quad running to first base as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning Monday. … Dodgers 3B Juan Uribe, 0 for 15 lifetime against Chacin with six strikeouts, missed his third straight game due to a lower abdominal strain. … Spilborghs was 0 for 3 against Kershaw, and is 6 for 36 lifetime against him.
