Kershaw (1-0) earned the win over Arizona on Saturday, pitching six innings and allowing one run on four hits and no walks while striking out nine batters.
Kershaw ceded the Dodgers' Opening Day starter role to Julio Urias this season, but the veteran doesn't appear to have slipped much despite having taxed his left arm with over 2,500 career regular-season innings. The future Hall of Famer was very sharp Saturday, racking up 13 swinging strikes and 21 called strikes among his 76 total pitches while fanning nine batters in six frames. The only run against Kershaw came on a second-inning home run off the bat of Christian Walker. Kershaw rebounded from a down 2021 performance with a 2.28 ERA and 0.94 WHIP over 126.1 innings last season, and Saturday's effort suggests that he still has the stuff to rank among the league's most effective hurlers.