PHILADELPHIA _ The Los Angeles Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw peeked his head over his right shoulder, noted the flight of the baseball and looked away. The history carried no weight for him. Kershaw never saw the baseball land, never saw the disappearance of the first grand slam he had ever allowed in the majors.
It happened in the 10th season, 290th game and 1,923th inning of Kershaw's career, in the sixth inning of a 4-3 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies. Philadelphia outfielder Aaron Altherr made history when he cranked a flat, belt-high slider into the upper deck in left field at Citizens Bank Park.
The homer ruined a night that started with such promise for the Dodgers. Chris Taylor led off with an inside-the-park home run. Justin Turner homered in the next at-bat. Kershaw blanked the Phillies for five innings.
Then it unraveled in the sixth, underscoring the fret that may surround Kershaw as October approaches. In four outings since returning from the disabled list, he has vacillated between brilliant and diminished. He followed six rugged innings in San Francisco last week with an inning-long tumble on Monday.
Curtis Granderson tightened the score in the ninth with a solo homer.
The Dodgers expect to celebrate their fifth consecutive National League West title this week. Earlier in the season, as the team treaded water in third place, manager Dave Roberts insisted his club would leapfrog both Arizona and Colorado. He was right. He treated the upcoming champagne bash like a certainty.
"It's going to happen," Roberts said before the game. "It's inevitable. I'm just more concerned about playing good baseball."
That concept eluded the team for weeks during that 1-16 losing stretch. The Dodgers rebounded to win four in a row last week while winning series against San Francisco and Washington. A chance to sweep the Nationals was foiled on Sunday, in part by Washington starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg. The Dodgers faced a less elite pitcher on Monday.
There are 126 pitchers who have thrown 100 innings or more this season. None of those men owned an earned-run average larger than Philadelphia starter Nick Pivetta. He lugged a 6.75 earned-run average to the mound on Monday.
The Dodgers greeted Pivetta with malice. Taylor waffled the second pitch of the game, a waist-high, 96-mph fastball. His drive soared into center field. Converging toward the ball were Altherr and center fielder Odubel Herrera. The baseball clanged off the railing and bounced into vacated grass in left. Taylor breezed home.
Turner followed up with a more conventional homer. Pivetta left a curveball over the middle. Turner shipped the baseball beyond the left-field fence.
The early blows did not overwhelm Pivetta. He extricated himself from trouble in the third after singles by Taylor and Cody Bellinger. Pivetta induced a sharp grounder to third base off the bat of Yasiel Puig. The Phillies turned two to escape. Pivetta did not give up another hit. He struck out eight in six innings.
Kershaw brushed aside the Philadelphia hitters during the first five innings. He yielded two singles and nothing else. No Phillie stood on second base.
That changed in the sixth. Kershaw kept missing low as he walked the leadoff batter, pinch-hitter Ty Kelly. Phillies shortstop Freddy Galvis flared a single. With two outs, Kershaw dueled with Rhys Hoskins, Philadelphia's rookie sensation. In his first 37 games, Hoskins boomed 18 home runs.
Kershaw avoided giving up No. 19. He aimed to spot fastballs and sliders at the floor of the zone, but missed his spot. Unable to ring up Hoskins, Kershaw allowed his second walk of the inning.
Altherr arrived next. He swung through a knee-high slider. Kershaw bounced a curveball. Then came the game-disrupting slider, a pitch without enough velocity to overwhelm and without enough movement to disrupt Altherr's swing. He crushed it. History was made.
