The Cincinnati Reds jumped on Clayton Kershaw early, scoring in the first inning, but Kershaw held them to one run and retired 14 straight batters to finish five innings. Kershaw threw 72 pitches and said he lacked life on his fastball and overall "stuff," prompting increased use of offspeed offerings and creative sequencing with Will Smith. Four days of rest and pitch feel contributed to a shorter outing, and the staff removed him after five innings. The bullpen, refreshed by the prior night and an upcoming off day, protected the lead and secured the victory.
"Will (Smith) did a good job. We kind of flipped the script and just started kind of throwing a lot of different stuff, trying to be creative, keep them off balance, because it wasn't coming out so good. Fortunate to make it through five. It's obviously not as deep as you want to get, but thankfully with Shee last night, our bullpen was fresh and we have the off day on Thursday."
"We knew we were asking a lot of him. He just competed like he always does," manager Dave Roberts said. "You could see early on he didn't have his best stuff, but he found a way to use all of his pitches and he got really creative with a lot more splits and curveballs arm side, just kind of doing diffe
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