Even at less than his best, Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw is good enough to beat anyone, and he did so Sunday with a 5-2 win over the Seattle Mariners. Kershaw, though, was not happy about his performance as MLB.com's Ken Gurnick reported.
With a Spring Training performance that most pitchers would love to have, Kershaw (W: 2-0, 2.16 ERA) lasted 3 1/3 innings and allowed only one earned run on four hits. The three walks he issued were the source of his self disappointment. Gurnick quoted the Dodgers ace discussing just that. Said Kershaw,
"I was all over the place, had no idea where the ball was going. I'm getting worse as the spring is going. I walked three in three innings. I have a lot of things to figure out. I would have liked to get through four innings, but my pitch count was so high I couldn't do it."
The Dodgers scored right away on a first-inning double from Howie Kendrick that scored Adrian Gonzalez. After Seattle tied it in the third, the Dodgers gave Kershaw the lead for good on Carl Crawford's fourth-inning RBI double.
Darwin Barney put the game away with a two-run blast (1) in the eighth, and the Dodgers added one more for good measure in the ninth on an Alex Guerrero RBI single.
Seattle got on the board in the third on a double play ground ball. Rickie Weeks scored what was then the tying run. Seattle would not score again until the ninth when Carlos Rivera crossed the plate on an error from Dodgers second baseman Darnell Sweeney.
Roenis Elias (L: 0-1, 4.70 ERA) started and pitched 3 2/3 innings for Seattle. He allowed two earned runs on six hits and struck out three.
Joe Wieland (S: 1) pitched the final two innings for the Dodgers to notch the save. He allowed an unearned run on three hits and struck out two.
Seattle has the day off Monday while Los Angeles hosts the Oakland Athletics.