Kershaw rolls; Ríos drives the offense
by Cary Osborne
Through two games in Miami, the Dodgers have been a wrecking ball — 10 home runs, 24 runs.
On Wednesday, the offense was mighty again — clubbing four homers, including the first two of Edwin Ríos’ career.
But it was Clayton Kershaw’s offensive prevention in a 9–1 victory that stood out as much.
Kershaw struck out the first seven Marlins he faced — a new modern Dodger record (since 1900, according to the Elias Sports Bureau). He retired the first 14 batters of the game. Miami left fielder Harold Ramirez broke up Kershaw’s perfect string with a two-out single in the fifth inning.
The Dodger left-hander went seven innings, allowed two hits, walked none and matched a season-high with 10 strikeouts. Kershaw earned the win — the 165th of his career — tying Sandy Koufax for the most in franchise history by a left-hander. He now has 2,416 career strikeouts — tied for 46th all time with Luis Tiant.
“Sometimes you just get in that groove early, and we scored three runs in the top of the first, so I just wanted to make that hold up,” Kershaw told SportsNet LA’s Alanna Rizzo. “You don’t really care how you get the outs as long as you’re efficient with it, and tonight I was able to get ahead, did a decent job with fastball command. I thought Russell (Martin) did a great job mixing locations back, going out and in. Both off-speed (pitches) have been better than in the past.”
Since July 5, Kershaw has a 1.40 ERA in seven starts and opponents are hitting .166 against him.
The Dodger ace has completed at least six innings in each of his 21 starts this season.
Kershaw hadn’t started since Aug. 6 when he allowed one run over seven innings in a 3–1 Dodger win against St. Louis.
He exited Wednesday’s game after 90 pitches and a big lead.
“Wasn’t stressed at all. Couldn’t have been a better situation for us. Tonight is as good a command, really, with all his pitches — namely his fastball,” said manager Dave Roberts of Kershaw’s performance. “So to get him to finish like that, to just use one reliever tonight, the way the offense swung the bats, the at-bats collectively, the defense tonight, (and) on the offensive side, Eddie was the star tonight.”
Ríos’ First Homers
Ríos played college baseball at Florida International University about 13 miles from Marlins Park. He hit two baseballs 415 feet and 412 feet, respectively, for home runs on Wednesday.
In the fourth inning, Ríos hit the first home run of his career — a solo shot over the center field wall off Elieser Hernandez. It gave the Dodgers a 4–0 lead at the time.
Ríos took Hernandez deep in the sixth inning for a two-run homer.
He went 3-for-4 in the game with three runs. He worked a 12-pitch walk in the eighth inning and later scored on a two-run double by Max Muncy, giving the Dodgers a 9–0 lead.
“It’s amazing. Words can’t describe it,” Ríos told Rizzo. “I’m so happy. I’m full of emotion right now and just going to enjoy this one and soak it all in.”
More Homers
The Dodgers struck in the first inning with a solo home run by Justin Turner — his 21st homer of the year — and a two-run shot by Corey Seager — his 11th.
Turner now has 11 homers since the All-Star Break — the most of any Dodger.
The Dodgers now have 207 homers in 2019 — fifth-most in franchise history. The record is 235, set by the 2018 Dodgers.
More Offense
The quartet of Turner, Cody Bellinger, Seager and Ríos went 10-for-19 with four homers and seven RBI.
The Dodgers have outscored the Marlins 24–2 in the first two games of this series.
