Brandon McCarthy shines in return from elbow surgery as Dodgers beat Rockies, 4-1

Brandon McCarthy’s first big league pitch in more than 14 months was a 91-mph fastball at the knees of Charlie Blackmon for a strike. Three pitches later, the Dodgers right-hander blew a 94-mph fastball by the Colorado leadoff man for a third strike.

McCarthy stood on the Dodger Stadium mound for a moment Sunday, not to soak in a milestone achievement after a grueling rehabilitation from elbow ligament-replacement surgery but to chuckle to himself.

His last pitch before the operation, on April 25, 2015, was driven for a three-run homer by San Diego’s Justin Upton in Petco Park.

“After the first strikeout, I was like, ‘OK, at least, if nothing else, I didn’t end my career with a home run to Justin Upton,’ ” McCarthy said. “I still have a chance for that, but right now I got away from it. That was the first thing I thought of, but other than that, it became business as usual.”

The whiff of Blackmon was the first of eight strikeouts for McCarthy, who allowed two hits in five scoreless innings and walked one in a 4-1 victory over the Rockies that completed a three-game sweep and provided another shot in the arm to a rotation that lost ace Clayton Kershaw to a lower-back injury last week.

McCarthy maintained the velocity of his fastball at 93-94 mph and had excellent command throughout. He ended the 72-pitch outing with strikeouts of Cristhian Adames (94-mph fastball), Brandon Barnes (80-mph changeup) and John Gray (93-mph fastball).

“He didn’t fatigue at all,” Roberts said. “The velocity held. He had late life in the zone. I think some of it had to do with adrenaline. We’ll see how he responds.”

It was an extraordinary effort that seemed rather ordinary to McCarthy, which was good.

“It felt surprisingly normal,” McCarthy said. “I didn’t feel nervous. I just sort of settled in out there. It really felt like I took a week off from last year, and this was the continuation. That was a nice surprise.”

There wasn’t much surprise in another corner of the clubhouse, Howie Kendrick and Justin Turner, who capped a three-run second inning with a run-scoring single, dressed after the game.

“Guys come back from Tommy John surgery all the time,” Kendrick said. “It’s like getting a cold today.”

“A long cold,” Turner added.

“A long one, yeah, but they come back and they’re still throwing hard,” Kendrick said. “Mac had his velocity today. The movement was there, and he kept guys off-balance. He was impressive. To come back after missing a year and to be dotting … he’s definitely what we need with Clayton out.”

In four starts since the Dodgers learned Kershaw has a herniated disk in his lower back, Kenta Maeda, Bud Norris, Scott Kazmir and McCarthy combined to go 4-0 with an 0.39 earned-run average, allowing one run in 23 innings, striking out 32, walking four and held hitters to a .130 average (10 for 77).

The Rockies were held to two runs or less in each game of a three-game series for the seventh time in franchise history. Their 41 strikeouts were the second-most ever for a three-game series.

“There was no panic,” Roberts said of the reaction to Kershaw’s injury. “There was no one in the clubhouse feeling sorry for themselves. The wins are maybe a coincidence, but I think the intent to play hard and pitch well and play well … there was a purpose behind it.”

Trayce Thompson sparked the second-inning rally with a solo homer, his 13th of the season, and McCarthy drew a bases-loaded walk before Turner’s RBI single. Yasmani Grandal added a solo homer in the seventh, his third in his last eight games.

Joe Blanton struck out the side in the eighth, and Kenley Jansen struck out three of four in the ninth, withstanding a brief delay caused by a group of animal rights activists who ran onto the field with banners protesting Farmer John, supplier of the team’s Dodger Dogs, for his 24th save.

The Dodgers have won 14 of 19 games to move to a season-high 10 games over .500 (47-37). Just as important, they have withstood, at least initially, what many thought would be a devastating blow, the loss of baseball’s best pitcher to the disabled list.

“The better we do without Kershaw,” Grandal said, “that just means we’re going to be that much better when he comes back.”