Kershaw Gets His First Loss | Dodger Daydreams

Clayton Kershaw made his third start in Major League Baseball today against the Colorado Rockies. He was charged with the loss, despite his decent performance. Hopefully, the rookie will be able to learn from this outing and improve his pitching mechanics for the future.

The left-hander opened up the game by striking out Colorado's Willy Taveras on a 1-2 count. Taveras stood there in disbelief as the pitcher sailed a pitch across the letters of his jersey. Kershaw's swell pitch indicated that he has better control on the mound than in his previous outing against the New York Mets.

Jon Herrera was then called out on strikes for the second out of the first inning. Kershaw released his "Public Enemy #1." The southpaw's 12-6 curveball is probably one of the sharpest pitches evident in the past couple of years.

The Dodgers' rookie decided to walk Ryan Spilborghs on the next play, sending fears to Dodgers' fans watching the matinee performance. The last thing that the Dodgers want is to have Kershaw lose his control on the mound like he did during his last start. But, Los Angeles ended the top of the first-inning on a ground-out.

Chris Iannetta started the top of the second-inning with an infield single. On a full-count to the Rockies' Jeff Baker, the batter drilled a pitch to deep-left center. The Rockies took the lead 2-0 on this magnificent home run.

Clayton Kershaw closed the top of the inning with a couple of strikeouts. The left-hander struck out Willy Taveras and Aaron Cook. The 20-year-old rookie seems to dominate Taveras, evident in his two strikeouts in today's game thus far.

In the top of the third-inning, Clayton Kershaw walked Ryan Spilborghs again. The right-handed batter has a .310 batting-average in the 2008 Regular Season thus far. However, Kershaw does not need to pitch around Spilborghs.

Pitching five innings, the rookie gave up a total of five hits and whiffed five batters. But, the southpaw also gave up four walks. Hopefully, Clayton Kershaw will develop better control on the mound like Sandy Koufax did in the 1961 Regular Season.

Chan Ho Park relieved Kershaw in the sixth-inning. The Korean pitcher struck out six batters over three innings. Although it would be great to have Clayton Kershaw as a starting-pitcher, it would be beneficial to have Chan Ho Park taking some starts instead.

The Los Angeles Dodgers confirmed that they will skip Clayton Kershaw's turn in the Starting-Rotation after off-days in hopes of preserving the rookie's arm from overuse. It is possible that the Dodgers' organization is scared of Clayton Kershaw suffering from a similar case of Daisuke Matsuzaka in the future. However, the hurler will be available to pitch from the Dodgers' bullpen. This seems like the best option for the Dodgers at this time.

Joe Torre added, "This time around, this is what we're doing. Pitching coach Rick Honeycutt] has it mapped out in coordination with the organization's thought process and the innings pitched, so we talked this morning and that's the plan this time around." Hopefully, this plan will effectively counter arm fatigue in Clayton Kershaw's future.

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