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By Jon Weisman

As he came to the plate with two out and the tying runner on third base in the bottom of the fifth inning tonight against San Francisco, I had this thought.

Clayton Kershaw, pitcher, is right now the toughest out in baseball.

Sure enough …

Facing Tim Hudson with a 1-1 count, Kershaw lined a shot that split the gap in right center, and the Most Valuable Player candidate — who already showed off his fielding mastery in the third — motored all the way to third base.

It was Kershaw’s first career triple, and like his only career home run on Opening Day 2013, it gave the Dodgers their first run of the game against the Giants.

Scoring on the play was Carl Crawford, who was hit in the foot by the first pitch of the inning and then stole second base on the next pitch. Crawford advanced to third on a deep fly to right by Juan Uribe, before he eased home on Kershaw’s triple to tie the game, 1-1.

Through five innings, Kershaw had allowed one run on four hits and no walks, striking out six, on 68 pitches.