Los Angeles Dodgers veteran left-hander Clayton Kershaw will look to keep turning back the clock when he takes a four-start winning streak into a matchup against the visiting Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday.
Kershaw also will be out to keep the Dodgers in first place after they regained solo possession of the top spot in the National League West with a 7-0 victory over the Reds on Monday. Andy Pages hit two home runs and Emmet Sheehan pitched seven scoreless innings.
“I thought the offensive, at-bats one through nine, were great,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s probably one of the better games, complete games that we’ve played in months, for me.”
Kershaw (8-2, 3.13 ERA) is on his second four-start winning streak after he made his season debut in the middle of May following knee and toe procedures in the offseason.
At age 37, and over 2,800 innings into an 18-year career, Kershaw is not the hard-throwing pitcher he once was but has found success with command of the strike zone and pitch selection.
In his most recent outing Thursday against the Colorado Rockies, he gave up three runs on six hits over 5 2/3 innings and now has a 1.90 ERA over his past four outings. In 15 career starts against the Reds, Kershaw is 7-2 with a 2.10 ERA.
The Dodgers continued to receive reinforcements for the stretch drive when Enrique Hernandez returned from the injured list Monday after recovering from a left elbow injury. He is expected to start Tuesday’s game in left field.
“(Hernandez) is a guy that is sort of a wild card in the sense of, hasn’t had the year (he expected) up to this point,” Roberts said. “The last few weeks he was hurt, but he’s a guy that we played every day in the postseason. So it’s going to be interesting to see these last four or five weeks, how (the lineup) shakes out.”
The Reds will counter with veteran right-hander Nick Martinez (10-9, 4.59), who gave up one run on two hits over six innings Wednesday against the Los Angeles Angels but ended up with a no-decision in a 2-1 loss.
He comes into Tuesday’s outing after retiring the last eight Angels batters he faced.
With left-hander Nick Lodolo expected to return from the injured list to start Wednesday, the 35-year-old Martinez could end up as the odd man out in the rotation.
“We’re in a good spot and we’re playing good baseball,” Martinez said. “Whatever happens in the next few days will be good for the team. So we’ve just got to keep playing good ball.”
Martinez has 12 career appearances (two starts) against the Dodgers and has gone 4-1 with a 1.76 ERA over 30 2/3 innings. He gave up two runs over six innings in a no-decision in a 5-2 win against Los Angeles at home in July.
For now, though, the Reds are 3-4 through the first seven games of a nine-game road trip that ends Wednesday. The Cincinnati offense had just three hits Monday, including a double from Gavin Lux, who received his World Series ring in a pregame ceremony with his former teammates.