LOS ANGELES_The collision brought a hush to Dodger Stadium, a ballpark still reeling from a ninth-inning hiccup that spoiled Clayton Kershaw's bid for his first shutout of 2017. An inning later, three innings before Logan Forsythe hit a walkoff RBI double to usher in a 2-1 victory over St. Louis, the left elbow of Yasiel Puig bashed into the head of fellow outfielder Joc Pederson and sent him sprawling across the warning track. Pederson pitched headlong into the base of the outfield wall.
In his glove, Puig held the baseball aloft. The movement triggered pain in his chest. Pederson lay prone in the dirt. Puig crumpled to the ground beside him. Puig stayed in the game. Pederson would stay down for two minutes before walking off with the training staff. He was diagnosed with a neck strain and did not return.
The injuries added a layer of worry to an evening that had already gone sideways. In a 10-strikeout, three-hit gem, Kershaw logged nine innings for the first time this season. He missed the chance at a shutout in quirky but infuriating fashion: He gave up a leadoff single to outfielder Randal Grichuk. Two batters later, his slider got lost in the dirt and kicked past catcher Yasmani Grandal. As Grandal searched for the baseball, Grichuk raced home from second to tie the game.
Up to that point, the Dodgers (27-19) had produced only two hits. One was a first-inning solo shot by Grandal. Kershaw almost made the lone tally stand up. Instead the game drifted into extra innings, when Forsythe provided their third hit of the evening.
The Dodgers entered this series after a seven-week start to the season. In less than two months, the Dodgers had placed their first baseman (Adrian Gonzalez), second baseman (Forsythe), third baseman (Justin Turner), center fielder (Joc Pederson) and two left fielders (Andre Ethier, Andrew Toles) on the disabled list. Yet the club remained comfortably above .500, trailing Colorado in the National League West but unconcerned about their position.
In part, the Dodgers feasted on the weak. They took three of four from Miami over the weekend. They beat the Padres five times. They swept the Pirates and the Phillies. These results offset losing series to Colorado, Arizona and the Cubs. The schedule increases in difficulty in the next two weeks, with six games against St. Louis sandwiched around a series against the Cubs this weekend.
During his first nine starts, Kershaw experienced intermittent command of his offspeed pitches. His outings were truncated, often out of caution rather than concern. He appeared to reclaim mastery of his slider late in an outing on May 12 in Colorado. The pitch appeared in full force during a start last week in San Francisco.
The Dodgers staked Kershaw a one-run lead in the first inning. Grandal entered the game batting .393 in May. He upped his average by waffling a full-count fastball from Cardinals starter Lance Lynn. The ball soared over center fielder Dexter Fowler's head and cleared the fence for Grandal's fifth homer of the season.
Kershaw faced the minimum through five innings. Leaning on his slider, he struck out three. From second base, Chase Utley flagged down a pair of flares in the outfield. Grandal cut down St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina, who had singled with one out in the second, trying to swipe second base on an 0-2 count to shortstop Aledmys Diaz.
The Cardinals made harder contact in the fourth. After Fowler flied out to right, Kershaw hung a slider to outfielder Stephen Piscotty. Yasiel Puig raced to the warning track to secure the second out. A groundout by first baseman Matt Carpenter ended the inning.
In the fifth, Kershaw brought out his curveball. He spun one past second baseman Jedd Gyorko for his fourth strikeout of the evening. Corey Seager sprawled to snag a two-out grounder hit by third baseman Jhonny Peralta. Seager clutched twice as he removed the ball from his glove, and his throw forced Adrian Gonzalez to tumble into the dirt at first base. But the throw beat Peralta, Gonzalez kept his foot attached to the bag, and a replay challenge by the Cardinals could not overturn it.
In Lynn, Kershaw found a worthy counterpart. Lynn retired eight batters in a row after Grandal's homer. He did not allow another hit until Utley singled in the eighth.
Diaz greeted Kershaw in the sixth by smashing a slider for a leadoff double. He took third on a groundball. Cardinals manager Mike Matheny allowed Lynn to bat with the tying run at third base. Lynn looked helpless in a three-pitch strikeout. Fowler did not look much better: He fanned on the fourth pitch of his at-bat, a slider that darted toward his back foot as it slipped underneath his bat.
After Carpenter nearly tied the game in the seventh with a deep drive to left-center field, Kershaw bowled the Cardinals over the eighth. He struck out Molina with a curveball. Peralta swung through a slider. So did Diaz.
Kershaw returned to his dugout. He found a seat next to pitching coach Rick Honeycutt. The duo conferred with Grandal as the Dodgers batted. When Kershaw came up, he took a two-out walk to extend the inning. He trotted from first base back to the dugout to drop off his gear, then returned to the mound. The ending was far from tidy.
