Apparently it doesn't matter where Clayton Kershaw pitches. He's even lights-out on a cricket ground in Australia. The Dodgers ace was his typical nasty self Saturday in Sydney.
Kershaw earned the distinction of being the winning pitcher in the earliest regular season game ever played. He surrendered just one run on five hits in 6 2/3 innings, walking one and fanning seven Diamondbacks for a 3-1 triumph. He departed after throwing 102 pitches.
He would have left with a shutout had he not thrown a wild pitch in the sixth inning that allowed Arizona slugging first baseman Paul Goldschmidt to move to third after a double. A groundout allowed him to score.
The victory brought some personal revenge for Kershaw, whose team lost all three of his starts to the Diamondbacks in 2013 despite him giving up just five runs to them in 21 1/3 innings. Kershaw took the defeat in first of those three outings.
The performance got Kershaw off a wonderful start in justifying the seven-year, $215 million contract he signed in the offseason. He will seek to continue striving toward that end when the Dodgers return to the states. They play at San Diego, but their pitching rotation for that series remains undecided.