Clayton Kershaw figures to be impatient while on Dodgers’ disabled list

Clayton Kershaw had been on the disabled list only once in his distinguished nine-year Dodgers career before being shelved by a herniated disk in his lower back last week, the left-hander sitting out six weeks early in 2014 because of a muscle strain in his upper back.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner was not a very good patient then, and he knows he won’t be now.

“I’m going to be very impatient and try to pitch tomorrow,” Kershaw said before Saturday night’s game. “The DL [stinks]. There’s no getting around it; it’s awful. You come to the field every day and feel like you let the team down by not pitching. It’s just the way it is, and you have to get through it.”

Kershaw, 11-2 with a National League-leading 1.79 earned-run average, said he is getting “a little relief” from an epidural he received Wednesday, “but it usually takes three to five days, so it’s still early,” he said. His pain is centralized in his lower back.

“There’s no pain going down my leg, which is a good sign,” he said.

Though he dealt with some discomfort for a few weeks, it wasn’t until after his six-inning, four-run, nine-hit loss in Pittsburgh on Sunday that Kershaw felt he could no longer push through it.

“If you ask anyone in a clubhouse, they would say, ‘My lower back is kind of stiff today,’ ” Kershaw said. “Everybody goes through that, and I didn’t think mine was any different. Maybe I pushed it too far, but I definitely didn’t do it on one pitch or anything like that. It was probably just a progression.”

Kershaw met with Dr. Robert Watkins at game time Saturday to map out a rehabilitation program, but when asked whether doctors have given him a general idea of how long he will be out, Kershaw said, “Not that I’m willing to discuss at this time.”

Long road back

Brandon McCarthy had a good idea Monday, when he completed five innings of a rehabilitation start for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga in the 105-degree heat of Visalia, that he was ready to return after a 14-month recovery from elbow ligament-replacement surgery.

“It was kind of a grind to get through it, but I did,” said McCarthy, who will start against the Colorado Rockies on Sunday. “Then I realized that I hadn’t even thought about my elbow for most of the game. It wasn’t even a thought. It was just, get people out.”

McCarthy, who hasn’t pitched in a big league game since April 2015, said his stuff “feels sharp,” but his true test will come in Dodger Stadium.

“You need Nolan Arenado to let you know, ‘Hey, your sinker [stinks] right now,’ or your stuff is where it is right now,” McCarthy said. “I think it’s good enough to compete. I need to find out what I need to refine and what needs to be tinkered with.”

The right-hander knows it will be a challenge to corral his emotions after a grueling and lengthy rehabilitation from the surgery.

“I don’t want it to be anything different than just a start,” McCarthy said. “I understand there’s something there, but I’m trying not to place any mental importance on it. It’s kind of another step along the way. As soon as I start focusing on things outside my control, it becomes a little too much.”

Short hops

Manager Dave Roberts said Hyun-Jin Ryu, recovering from shoulder surgery, came out of Friday night’s six-inning start for Rancho Cucamonga “OK” despite taking a comebacker off his left calf in the fifth inning. “We haven’t decided if he’s going to make another rehab start … or pitch here,” Roberts said. … Shortstop Corey Seager earned NL rookie-of-the-month honors after hitting .343 (35 for 102) with a 1.085 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, eight home runs, 13 runs batted in and 20 runs in June. … The Dodgers reportedly signed Dominican shortstop Albert Suarez for $300,000.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

Twitter: @MikeDiGiovanna

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