"Certainly it wasn't ideal": Dave Roberts gives his verdict on Clayton Kershaw's second underwhelming start of the 2024 season
LA Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw may be out of gas at this stage of his career. After missing the entire first half of the 2024 season, Kershaw returned last week against the San Francisco Giants, where he pitched four innings, gave up six hits and two earned runs.
On Wednesday, he made his second start, and again, he was nowhere near what he used to be as he gave up seven hits and seven runs (three earned) in 3.2 innings of work. This has led many to raise doubts about Kershaw's pitching prowess. Nonetheless, manager Dave Roberts agreed that the southpaw's start against the Padres was anything but ideal.
"I don't know what led to it. Certainly, it wasn't ideal, to say the least. I think just the command wasn't there," Roberts said in a post-game interview with SportsNet. "It just wasn't great. We didn't help ourselves defensively, and he didn't help himself defensively. Certainly that bled into the efficiency and added base runners and things like that."
Like his previous start, Kershaw's iconic curveball was on top of its game but his primary pitch, a slider, was once again ineffective against the Padres lineup. It didn't have the same bite it used to; but again, it's just his second start of the season, so the pitch might still need some practice before it starts working against live hitters.
Dave Roberts explains why Clayton Kershaw struggled in his second start
In his post-game assessment, Roberts mentioned there were many times that Kershaw's strikeout pitches were fouled off—elevating his pitch count and rendering him off the mound before five expected innings.
"Even when he was getting count leverage, there was a lot of foul balls that typically he would get the strikeouts. You don't see them getting under the slider and really elevating it like they were tonight," Roberts said.
Moreover, Roberts did add that he doesn't expect Kershaw to show MVP levels just yet.
"I think so, yeah. I think that it's hard to ever bet against Clayton Kershaw. The last one I thought was very good and tonight just wasn't great. I think he'll be the first to say that, but it's part of the process. I just don't think that anyone can expect him to come back and be lights out every start out, certainly after two starts," Roberts added.
With time, Roberts feels the veteran hurler will get settled and dominate as he used to following his history, that appears to be consistent, in the last 2–3 years.