pitch

Before anything, Clayton Kershaw has to believe. Before he can snap off curveballs the way he used to, before he can be a dependable member of the rotation instead of last resort, he has to believe.

Clayton Kershaw believes.

Never mind the mounting evidence to the contrary — the 5.17 earned-run average through his four starts this season, the two starts that weren’t interrupted by rain in which he failed to complete five innings, the unremarkable high-80s-to-low-90s fastball, the career-low strikeout rate.

Kershaw believes he can once again be a contributor on a championship team.

“I just need to put it together for a whole game,” Kershaw said, “which I think I can do and will do.”

Who’s to say otherwise?

He’s looked finished before, and he wasn’t. Even with diminished stuff, he’s found ways to get hitters out, so why should this time be any different?

“I’m gonna bet on him,” manager Dave Roberts said.

For now, at least, Roberts doesn’t have a choice. Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell remain sidelined. So is Roki Sasaki.

The next man up would be Bobby Miller, who lasted only three innings in his only major league start this season.

In reality, Kershaw also doesn’t have a choice other than to believe. What’s the alternative?

In the wake of a 10-inning, 6-5 victory over the New York Mets on Tuesday night in which he pitched just 4 ⅔ innings, Kershaw’s rhetoric and demeanor were remarkably upbeat. He pointed to his recovery from the knee and foot surgeries he underwent over the winter, as well as his shoulder operation from the previous offseason.

“I mean, physically, I feel great,” he said. “I don’t feel old. My arm feels good. There’s not really any excuses. It’s just pitch better, pitch like you’re capable of. I think the stuff’s there. The stuff’s there to get people out.”

Kershaw was charged with five runs, three of them earned. He gave up six hits and three walks.

“It’s kind of in and out for me,” he said. “I think I’ll go on a stretch of making, like, 10 or 11 good pitches in a row and then just make enough bad ones to get some damage done against me.”

In Roberts’ view, his trademark slider lacked “teethiness.” More problematic was his curveball, which was particularly erratic.

“Can’t just be a two-pitch guy out there, so definitely need to throw my curveball better, for sure,” Kershaw said.

The absence of the curveball prevented Kershaw from putting away batters. He had 14 batters into two-strike counts but managed only two strikeouts while giving up four hits and a walk.

“I know he’s frustrated because he’s getting count leverage with guys and can’t put them away by way of strikeout,” Roberts said. “He’s competing his tail off, but it just hasn’t been as easy as it has been for him prior to this little stretch.”

In Kershaw’s defense, he was let down by, well, his defense.

In the Mets’ two-run five inning, Max Muncy allowed a potential inning-ending double play grounder to skip through his legs. Later, Brandon Nimmo reached base on a train wreck of a defensive play by the Dodgers, allowing the Mets to score and take a 5-4 lead.

Kershaw is 37 now, with more than 3,000 innings pitched in professional baseball. He won’t win another Cy Young Award, and he knows that. The Dodgers know that too, and that’s not what they’re asking of him. What they’re counting on him to do is to take the mound every six or seven days and keep them in games, perhaps take down six or seven innings on occasion to relieve their overworked bullpen.

“I think he’s going to approach each start to give us a chance to win,” Roberts said. “And I don’t know what that looks like each start, but I think that that’s a starting point, and then from that point, as a game goes on, then I’m gonna have to make decisions on what we have behind him.”

Kershaw made an All-Star team just two years ago and started one the year before that. His stuff was almost as diminished then as it is now. He should be able to pitch like that again, and he’s taken a small but critical first step toward doing that. He believes he can.

Jack Kochanowicz mowed through his first three innings against the Yankees on Monday night.

The 6-foot-7 sinkerballer was doing all of what manager Ron Washington asked of him before the game: pitch to contact and let his defense do the work.

“Just be Jack,” Washington said. ‘Throw his sinker, change, eye-level, put the ball in play early — which is when he’s at his best. That’s what he does. So that’s all. I’m not looking for him to be nothing more than that, and if he’s that, it’ll be good enough.”

Nine up, and nine down on 28 pitches — Kochanowicz looked “good enough.” He was hurling just as efficiently as he did against the Dodgers on May 16 when he limited the Angels’ crosstown foes to just one run across 6 ⅔ innings. As he jaunted to the mound for the fourth, the crowd woke up, rising in volume; but not for Kochanowicz.

“Let’s go, Yankees,” the fans in the right-field seats of Angel Stadium bellowed, much like the “Bleacher Creatures” would back in the Bronx. First baseman Ben Rice singled, and then center fielder Trent Grisham did too. Following a rousing ovation, designated hitter Aaron Judge — who upped his batting average to a league-high .398 — loaded the bases on an infield single.

As Yankees fans roared louder, Kochanowicz hiccuped. The sophomore starting pitcher walked Cody Bellinger on four pitches to bring in a run, and two batters later, Anthony Volpe hit a bases-clearing double off the center-field wall to power the Yankees (33-20) to a three-run lead. It was more than enough to take down the Angels (25-28), who struggled to string together hits for the third consecutive game in a 5-1 loss to open the series.

“Always just comes down to pitch calling,” Kochanowicz said. “It’s very easy to ask yourself a million questions about every pitch you throw, but I think I just — I came at them hard that inning. I didn’t start anyone off with the breaking ball. So that was probably it.”

Shortstop Zach Neto led off the bottom of the first with a 440-foot solo home run to center field — the longest of his career — but it was all the Angels had to offer at the plate. Before the game, Washington called his offense young and inconsistent.

The Angels offered more of those characteristics against the Yankees and left-hander Ryan Yarbrough.

Outside of a fluke infield single from Jo Adell, Neto’s home run was all the Angels mustered against the funky, sidearm delivery of the New York southpaw through six innings.

“The way we were swinging the bat, I did think that we would have at least three or four guys in that line of constantly clicking,” Washington said after the Angels were limited to five hits. “Miami come up in here and put us away, and then now we fight to try to find it back again.”

Yarbrough easily dispatched Chris Taylor — who started in center field and went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts in his Angels debut — for a flyout and second baseman Kevin Newman for a strikeout to end the fifth.

“Yarbrough did a good job,” Taylor said. “Shut us down for the most part.”

The sixth inning was no better as the top of the Angels’ lineup went down 1-2-3 and Yarbrough exited with his longest and arguably best start of the season, striking out seven. The Angels struck out 11 times in the game.

“Sustaining that offense that we had,” Washington said when asked before the game about matching the offensive rhythm of the Angels’ eight-game winning streak, “it’s impossible.”

Outside of his four-run, fourth inning, Kochanowicz was in the “midseason form” he described himself in on Sunday. The right-hander pumped his fastball as high as 97.3 mph and averaged 95 on his sinker, both a tick below his season averages. Four of his 6 ⅔ innings concluded in 1-2-3 fashion.

“I thought he was good, really,” Washington said. “Those first three innings, he was dominating. … If we could just take [the fourth inning] back it’d be a different ballgame.”

Kochanowicz struck out five and walked two, giving up just five hits. But the Angels’ offense didn’t back up their pitchers, sending them to a three-game losing streak.

Note: Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe was removed from the game in the eighth inning after being hit in the head on a backswing from Yankees second baseman Jorbit Vivas. O’Hoppe was removed as a precaution, Washington said, and was unavailable for comment after the game. “[O’Hoppe is] telling me he can play [tomorrow], but we’re going to wait and see,” Washington said.

NEW YORK — It had been 641 days since Shohei Ohtani last threw a pitch to a live hitter from a big-league mound.

At 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, inside an empty Citi Field on a cool afternoon in Queens, he did so again — this time, for the first time, in a Dodger blue uniform.

Nineteen months removed from a second career Tommy John procedure that has limited the two-way star to hitting-only duties during his first season and a half with the Dodgers, Ohtani threw a live batting practice session on Sunday in what was the biggest step in his pitching progression yet.

In five at-bats against Hyeseong Kim, Dalton Rushing and game-planning coach JT Watkins, Ohtani threw 22 pitches. He was 94-97 mph with his fastball, and used his full repertoire, including his sweeper. He had two strikeouts and one walk. He fielded a comebacker from Kim in his first at-bat. He gave up a line drive to right then next time Kim came to the plate.

But most of all, he seemed overjoyed to be throwing in a simulated environment again, joking with coaches and laughing with teammates throughout the first of several live sessions that precede his expected return to the rotation sometime after the July All-Star break.

“He’s looking forward to pitching,” pitching coach Mark Prior said. “And I think today was great because he was able to keep the mood light, but be able to maintain real stuff. I think that’s always important. He didn’t look like he was having stress or [was] under stress to amp up, try to generate any of his power. He was loose and it was all free and easy. So that’s always a positive.”

Sunday had been a long time coming for Ohtani, the three-time MVP with a career 3.01 ERA in 86 career big-league starts.

Last year, at the outset of his pitching rehab, Ohtani progressed from simple catch play to regular bullpens by the end of the regular season. He wasn’t far off from being able to face hitters by the time the playoffs started, but the Dodgers decided to dial back his pitching progression so he could focus on his first career MLB postseason.

An offseason surgery on Ohtani’s non-throwing left shoulder further delayed his pitching plan entering spring camp this year, limiting him only to a handful of bullpens before the club departed for its season-opening trip to Japan.

Ohtani resumed bi-weekly bullpens once the regular season started — lighter sessions on Wednesdays followed by more intensive ones on the weekends — and had been increasing the number of pitches in his bullpens over recent weeks.

This past week, he also began reincorporating his sweeper for the first time since getting hurt, one of the last boxes he had to check before Sunday’s live BP.

While the Dodgers have been wary of laying out the specific checkpoints that remain before Ohtani can join the team’s rotation, manager Dave Roberts said it’s unlikely he pitches any big-league games until after the All-Star break.

“I just think that you’re talking about end of May, he’s doing his first simulated game,” Roberts said Saturday night. “And in theory, you got to build a starter up to five, six innings. And so just the natural progression, I just don’t see it being before that.”

Still, Sunday was the most tangible sign yet of Ohtani’s nearing return to pitching.

“He has taken a very methodical approach to this. We’ve tried to take a very methodical approach to this, understanding the uniqueness of the situation,” Prior said. “I will never, and I don’t think anybody in that room would ever, doubt what he can do. But, you know, still got a long way to go. We’ll see where it comes out at the end of this year.”

Connor Norby had three hits, including a three-run homer in the seventh inning, and the Miami Marlins ended the Angels’ eight-game win streak in a 6-2 win Saturday night.

Norby’s third home run came on a 1-2 pitch from reliever Caden Dana (0-1) as Miami stopped a three-game slide.

Taylor Ward doubled and scored in the ninth — giving him an extra-base hit for the 10th straight game, an Angels record.

The Marlins took a 1-0 lead in the second against starter José Soriano when Liam Hicks walked leading off and scored on a two-out single by Ronny Simon.

Angels pitcher Jose Soriano delivers against the Marlins in the first inning Saturday at Angel Stadium.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Zach Neto doubled leading off the fourth and Yoán Moncada’s one-out single put runners at the corners, ending Marlins starter Cal Quantrill’s night after just 46 pitches. Ronny Henriquez (2-1) entered and gave up a tying sacrifice fly to Ward before striking out Jorge Soler to keep it 1-1.

Eric Wagaman had a two-out RBI single in a two-run fifth to put Miami up 3-1.

Janson Junk yielded one run and six hits in five innings of relief against his former team for his first career save.

Soriano (3-5) gave up three runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings.

The Marlins loaded the bases with nobody out in a 1-1 score in the fifth. Soriano got a double-play grounder from Kyle Stowers that made it 2-1, and Wagaman blooped a single to center for a two-run lead and Miami never looked back.

The Angels also had a team-record seven-game stretch of hitting multiple home runs end.

Up next: Marlins RHP Edward Cabrera (0-1, 5.50 ERA) starts Sunday’s finale against Angels RHP Kyle Hendricks (2-5, 5.32).

Slow down.

Previously limited to fastballs and splitters, Shohei Ohtani threw a handful of sliders and curveballs in his mid-week bullpen session, but that doesn’t mean he will be a two-way player again before the All-Star break.

Ohtani is lined up to potentially face hitters in a simulated game on Saturday in New York, but that doesn’t mean he will pitch in the upcoming four-week stretch that could determine the course of the Dodgers’ season.

As encouraged as the team is with his progress and as desperate as the Dodgers are for one of their sidelined frontline starters to return, they will continue to slow play Ohtani’s return to the mound, according to a person familiar with the team’s thinking but not authorized to speak publicly.

The Dodgers could use Ohtani’s arm, but they absolutely need his bat, and they don’t plan on jeopardizing his offense by exposing him to any unnecessary risks on the mound.

Which is a major gamble in itself.

Every one of their next 26 games will be against teams with winning records. Of them, 23 will be against teams that would have qualified for the playoffs if the regular season ended on Wednesday, the exception being the St. Louis Cardinals, who have won 13 of their last 17 games.

Starting on Friday at Citi Field with the opening game of a three-game series against the New York Mets, the stretch of games will include seven meetings with the San Diego Padres and three with the San Francisco Giants.

The Padres were 2 ½ games behind the Dodgers in the National League West entering Thursday. The Giants were just two back.

Considering the state of their pitching staff, the Dodgers could very easily emerge from this stretch of games in second, third, or maybe even fourth place in their division.

Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell will be sidelined for another month, leaving Yoshinobu Yamamoto as the team’s only reliable starter.

Roki Sasaki is targeting a return in late June from what the team described as a shoulder impingement, but the rookie never looked entirely comfortable before he went down, so who knows what he will offer them when he comes back.

Roki Sasaki is one of several Dodgers starting pitchers on the injured list.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

“Not sure I’ve ever seen their pitching so decimated,” an executive from a rival team said.

The loss of frontline starters is nothing new for the Dodgers, whose injury problems last year practically forced them to acquire Jack Flaherty at the trade deadline. What’s new is their lack of depth.

The returns of Tony Gonsolin and Clayton Kershaw have mitigated the problem but only so much. Along with the inconsistent Dustin May and the consistently mediocre Landon Knack, Gonsolin and Kershaw represent the rotation’s final line of defense.

In previous seasons, the Dodgers always seemed to have 10 pitchers in their organization who could beat a mid- or low-level opponent on any given day. However, the inability to keep their young pitchers healthy has cost them much of that depth. Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan and Gavin Stone underwent major surgeries last year. Michael Grove had a shoulder operation this year. Injuries have turned Bobby Miller into a pedestrian minor leaguer, but if another starter is injured, the Dodgers could be forced to call him up again.

Dave Roberts expertly managed a depleted rotation and exhausted bullpen in the playoffs last year, and he’ll have to do it again less than two months into the regular season. He could have to punt on certain games. When his team is behind, he could have to ask his starter to pitch an extra inning or two so that he could save his high-leverage relievers for games in which they are ahead.

This isn’t to say Ohtani’s pitching comeback should be expedited. Whomever they have pitching, the Dodgers will have to score runs to win another World Series, and that starts with Othani. Before they unleash Ohtani the pitcher, they have to protect Ohtani the hitter.

Because of that, they have gambled on May pitching more games like the one he pitched on Wednesday night in a 3-1 victory over Diamondbacks. They have gambled on Kershaw figuring out how to pitch as a 37-year-old returning from multiple operations. And they have gambled on Roberts managing an injury-ravaged pitching staff.

The wagers will decide what kind of season this will be, whether this is a year in which the Dodgers will run away with the NL West or one in which they will have to fight until the final days of the regular season to determine which team is granted a first-round bye in the playoffs.

WEST SACRAMENTO — Taylor Ward hit a two-run homer, Nolan Schanuel also went deep and the Angels beat the skidding Athletics 4-3 on Monday night in the opener of a four-game series.

Kenley Jansen struck out Tyler Soderstrom for the final out with a runner on second. Coming off a surprising three-game sweep at Dodger Stadium, the Angels (21-25) have won four in a row to start a seven-game trip.

The Athletics (22-26) have lost six straight and 10 of 12, falling to 8-14 at Sutter Health Park.

Schanuel, who had three hits and scored twice, connected off J.T. Ginn for his third homer this season to give the Angels the lead two batters into the game. Ginn was activated to make his fourth start of the year and first since April 24, when elbow inflammation landed him on the 10-day injured list.

Lawrence Butler’s double, a walk and a hit batter loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the first against Angels starter José Soriano. Butler scored when Brent Rooker grounded into a double play, and Shea Langeliers’ infield single made it 2-1.

Zach Neto singled and Schanuel doubled to start the third. Yoán Moncada had an RBI groundout before Ward hit his 13th homer for a 4-2 lead.

Soderstrom doubled with two outs in the fifth and scored on Rooker’s single to make it 4-3.

Soriano (3-4) went six innings, giving up three runs on six hits and four walks. Jansen gave up a two-out single to Jacob Wilson in the ninth before pinch-runner Max Schuemann stole second. Jansen fanned Soderstrom on three pitches for his ninth save in nine opportunities.

Ginn (1-2) left after four innings and 79 pitches, yielding four runs and six hits with seven strikeouts.

Key moment: Soriano loaded the bases with one out in the third before striking out Langeliers and Nick Kurtz swinging to escape unscathed.

Key stat: Rooker has a 15-game hitting streak against the Angels. Bill North set the club record in the series at 17 games spanning the 1974 and ’75 seasons.

Up next: RHP Kyle Hendricks (1-5, 5.18 ERA) pitches Tuesday for the Angels against RHP Gunnar Hoglund (1-1, 3.78), who makes his fourth career start.

A STAMFORD BRIDGE pitch invader was “speared” as a steward was compared to a WWE legend.

Chelsea and Manchester United players looked on bemused as a fan got right out into the middle in the Prem clash – before being fiercely tackled by staff.

1

Viewers were quick to praise the smart – and amazingly quick – work.

One posted: The best thing about this game is the pitch invader being speared by the steward. Proper prime Goldberg spear.

THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY..

The Sun is your go to destination for the best football, boxing and MMA news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video.Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheSunFootball and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSunFootball.