Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw shuts down Angels in 3-1 victory

If the sight of Clayton Kershaw returning to the mound Saturday provided a welcome relief to the concerned patrons at Dodger Stadium, the performance that followed granted them another opportunity to celebrate his brilliance.

In a start that was postponed twice by a sore hip, Kershaw pitched eight shutout innings to lead the Dodgers to a 3-1 victory over the Angels and extend his scoreless streak to 37 innings.

He gave up only two hits. He struck out seven and walked one.

He retired Mike Trout in all three at-bats of baseball’s first matchup of reigning most valuable players, most memorably in the first inning on a paralysis-inducing curveball for a called third strike.

“Kershaw today had his dominant stuff again,” Trout said. “That’s why he’s in the best in the league.”

After Trout was struck out by Kershaw in the first inning, he grounded into a force out in the fourth and flied to right field in the seventh.

“Everything was move, cutting, sinking, sliding, curving,” Trout said. “The whole bit.”

Angels starter Andrew Heaney kept up with Kershaw for as long as he could, blanking the Dodgers for the first five innings. The home team broke through with three runs in the sixth, the first on a sacrifice fly by Scott Van Slyke against Heaney, the last two on a home run to center by Yasmani Grandal off reliever Fernando Salas.

Heaney (5-1) muttered a four-letter expletive and said, “I had no chance.” It was the fifth loss in a row for the Angels, who now trail Houston by three games.

While reporting no problems with his hip, Kershaw acknowledged he was affected by the unusually long layoff between his last start and this one. He was scratched Wednesday and again Friday.

Pitching on eight days’ rest, instead of the usual four, Kershaw ran up his pitch count to 50 after only three innings.

“It’s crazy what two or three days off will do,” Kershaw said. “I don’t like days off, apparently.”

Kershaw said his off-speed pitches weren’t sharp, but also credited the Angels hitters.

“The Angels were doing a good job laying off a lot of pitches down in the zone,” he said. “They had a really good game plan and stuck with it.”

Kershaw received help from his defense, particularly in the second inning.

With Albert Pujols on first base, second baseman Howie Kendrick dived to stop a hard-hit grounder by Erick Aybar that was headed for center field. Kendrick flipped the ball with his glove to shortstop Jimmy Rollins for the force at second.

Rollins made a diving stop on the ensuing at-bat by Carlos Perez to get another out at second base, and Kershaw retired David De Jesus to get out of the inning.

Soon after, Kershaw (9-6) discovered a rhythm he would maintain for the remainder of the game, as his earned-run averaged dropped to 2.37.

“I think my fastball got a little better as the game went on,” Kershaw said.

Kershaw knew he wouldn’t pitch the ninth inning, as his pitch count was at 114 through eight.

He nonetheless returned to the mound for the ninth inning, which prompted the Angels to call on the right-handed-hitting C.J. Cron to pinch hit. Immediately after Cron was announced as the hitter, Kershaw was replaced by closer Kenley Jansen.

Kershaw departed to a standing ovation from the capacity crowd with the Dodgers leading, 3-0, on their way to a fifth consecutive win over the Angels.

“It was a little awkward for me,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t pitching. Just trying to get the matchups that we wanted.”

Kershaw moved to within a complete game of eclipsing Zack Greinke’s 45 2/3-inning scoreless streak, which ended last weekend. He became the first pitcher since Luis Tiant to record multiple scoreless streaks of 35 or more innings. Kershaw had a 41-inning shutout streak last season. Tiant had streaks of 41 innings in 1968 and 40 innings in 1972.

Kershaw now has four consecutive starts of eight or more scoreless innings. That last time a pitcher did that? 1988, when Orel Hershiser tossed a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings.

Up next

Mat Latos (4-7, 4.48 ERA) makes his Dodgers debut against Cory Rasmus (0-0, 0.00) of the Angels on Sunday at 1 p.m. TV: SportsNet LA, FS West. Radio: 570, 830.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com

Twitter: @dylanohernandez