Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw has a bone spur on his left big toe, according to manager Dave Roberts. Yet another pillar of the rotation has fallen.
Kershaw exited the matchup with the Arizona Diamondbacks in the second inning. After Corbin Carroll hit a homer off the veteran left-hander, Roberts and athletic trainer Thomas Albert met Kershaw on the mound.
“It’s a bone spur. It’s obviously not good. There’s swelling. There’s pain. He’s doing everything he can to kind of get through,” Roberts told Jack Harris of The Los Angeles Times. “Some starts it feels fine and it’s not impeding. Today certainly it was. He just — he had nothing. No legs today obviously. Then you start worrying about how it could affect his arm. There was just no other alternative but to take him out of that second inning after the [Corbin] Caroll at-bat. We’re going to see how he comes in tomorrow. We got somebody coming, just potentially if it is an IL situation.”
Kershaw’s exit from the game forced the bullpen to finish the game with no outs in the second inning. Despite having an early three-run lead, Joe Kelly struggled with his command as the first reliever to take the mound for Los Angeles.
“But no matter what I did I couldn’t find a comfortable way to push off on my toe,” Kershaw told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. “It’s super frustrating obviously to put the team in a really tough spot, having the bullpen cover eight innings.”
The toe injury is something Kershaw has dealt with for years periodically. Friday night, the ailment resurfaced.
Kershaw’s injury might hurt the Dodgers down the stretch since the rotation is already short-handed given the absence of Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. But it didn’t stop Los Angeles from pulling off a crucial victory.
Nevertheless, now that the Dodgers had to rely so heavily on the bullpen in their first game against Arizona, it’s likely the clubhouse will make multiple moves for much-needed reinforcements.
Despite a bullpen running on fumes, the Dodgers held on to their lead in the National League West.
As the postseason looms in the distance, the Dodgers rotation continues to look bleak. The pitching staff may once again be a weakness in the postseason.
Los Angeles barely got by in Friday night’s 10-9 win over the Snakes, but the Dodgers clubhouse proved yet again they could stare adversity in the face and overcome a huge obstacle.
Photo Credit: Owen Ziliak/The Republic-USA TODAY NETWORK
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