Clayton Kershaw helps Dodgers right ship vs. rival Padres - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — His teammates were reeling, their bitter rivals were surging, the division was slipping, and under those circumstances, Clayton Kershaw — clearly diminished but still every bit as determined — came through.

With the Los Angeles Dodgers riding a four-game losing streak, and hosting a San Diego Padres team that had won five straight to make up 10 games in a span of six weeks, Kershaw fired six innings of one-run ball Friday night, cutting through the tension of a keyed-up series to set the tone in a 3-2 victory at Dodger Stadium.

The National League West, a division the Dodgers led by nine games just six weeks earlier, is tied once more. The Padres and Dodgers will play five more games against one another over the next nine days.

«We had the right guy on the mound tonight,» Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. «I think we all know that.»

Kershaw made his debut with the Dodgers' 2025 rotation around the middle of May, after fully recovering from offseason knee and foot surgeries, and helped stabilize a group that once again found itself beset by injuries. His initial results were merely decent — a 3.62 ERA in 12 starts, with 39 strikeouts and 18 walks in 59⅔ innings — but his availability was vital.

Over the past few weeks, as the Dodgers' rotation has stabilized, Kershaw has tapped into another level.

All three of his starts this month have seen him go six innings while combining to allow just two runs. On Friday night, the only damage against him was a Ramon Laureano solo homer that clanged off the left-field foul pole. Kershaw featured a sharper-than-usual slider and allowed just two other baserunners while requiring only 76 pitches to complete 18 outs. Fifteen starts into his age-37 season, he's 7-2 with a