It’s true: Dodgers explode for 17 hits as Clayton Kershaw shuts out Marlins, 8-0
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Those Dodgers, they can always top their last performance.
The day after that bizarre doggy-fire game, the Dodgers exploded for eight runs and a season-high 17 hits in absolutely routing the Florida Marlins.
Not sure which was more unexpected, but after a month where the Dodgers averaged only 2.7 runs per game and scored one or fewer runs 10 times in 25 games, they weren’t about to argue with any unusual happening that fell their way.
And plenty did before the Dodgers left with an 8-0 victory on a gusty Sunday afternoon before an announced crowd of 30,621.
Left-hander Clayton Kershaw was every bit as brilliant on the mound as the Dodgers were at the plate, shutting out the Marlins on just two hits, a soft single by Omar Infante and a Logan Morrison drive in the seventh that Jay Gibbons misplayed into a double.
Kershaw (6-3) struck out 10 in throwing just the second shutout, and complete game, of his career. He walked one.
Oh, and also had two hits and ran the bases sharply to help ignite one of the two times the Dodgers batted around against Ricky Nolasco.
The Marlins let Nolasco stay in there for five innings, by which time the Dodgers had scored all eight runs and had 15 hits, tying the Los Angeles Dodgers record set by four others for most hits against a single pitcher.
Offensive highlights abounded:
-- Struggling Rafael Furcal, who was just two for 26 since coming off the disabled list, had three hits and three runs batted in, including a two-run homer in the fourth to start the scoring.
-- Andre Ethier also had three hits, and walked twice.
-- Casey Blake, one for eight since he came off the disabled list, had two hits and two RBIs.
-- Dioner Navarro had two hits, including a double.
-- Gibbons had three hits and an RBI.
It all went so well, the Dodgers couldn’t even be concerned with Matt Kemp being thrown out for objecting to strike calls, or Manager Don Mattingly, who argued on Kemp’s behalf and was also quickly ejected.
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-- Steve Dilbeck