Dodgers survive and advance, 4-3

[mlbvideo id=”161597583″ width=”550″ height=”308″ /]

By Jon Weisman

001 300 40x — 8

That linescore above doesn’t represent the runs scored against Clayton Kershaw in Friday’s outing. It represents the runs scored against him in his past six outings.

In those six starts since May 15, through tonight’s 4-3 victory over San Diego, Kershaw has a 2.11 ERA. And for his past four starts, Kershaw has a 0.94 ERA period: 28 2/3 innings, 14 hits, six walks (0.70 WHIP), 39 strikeouts (12.2 K/9).

And yet when Kershaw gave up a solo home run in the seventh inning of a 117-pitch outing in which he allowed seven baserunners and struck out 11 — all despite being hit by a line drive in the first, it catalyzed a sequence of events that kept him from becoming the first pitcher in 72 years to win 10 consecutive June starts, and set up a collective heart attack for much of the Dodger fan base.

This was a mistake-filled performance by the Dodgers, as Don Mattingly was the first to say in the postgame interviews. (Mattingly, of course, would be ripped in equal parts for leaving Kershaw in too long and taking him out too soon.) But as long as humans are playing the game and not robots, mistakes are part of baseball. The expectation that players should be perfect mystifies me.

From the seventh inning on, the Dodgers had their leading All-Star vote-getter get ejected, made a critical error, gave up a two-run home run and made two outs on the basepaths.

The end result: They gained a game in the National League West on the Giants, who threw Madison Bumgarner against Arizona and still lost.

Despite all the baserunning misfortune, the offense scored four runs at Petco Park.

Despite the one bad pitch to Derek Norris, the bullpen faced 11 batters, allowed zero earned runs and held a one-run lead for final two innings.

Baseball, at its essence, is about overcoming the inevitable shortcomings of its players. That’s what the Dodgers did tonight.