The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reallity every weekday morning.James Loney drove in the winning run, or more accurately walked it in. The pricey free agents -- Orlando Hudson and Manny Ramirez -- were the heroes sparking the game-winning rally in the ninth inning with consecutive no-out hits. But it was Clayton Kershaw who sent the loudest message Wednesday night.
The Dodgers pulled out a 5-4 win over the hated Giants, securing the series victory ahead of Thursday night's finale in dramatic fashion by scoring in the bottom of the eighth and ninth after Hong-Chih Kuo and Ronald Belisario coughed up the lead on Aaron Rowand's three-run homer.
Those dramatics made for interesting theater, but as is so often the case with early-season games, it obscured the real story: a dazzling performance by Kershaw.
The 21-year-old lefthander allowed one hit, a Bengie Molina home run in the second inning, over seven innings, and struck out a whopping 13 Giants on the night.
All the usual caveats apply. San Francisco has one of the weaker lineups around. It's only two starts. And on and on. But given his pedigree, the Dodgers have to feel awfully good about young Kershaw.
The southpaw has been a highly regarded prospect almost from the moment Los Angeles plucked him from a Dallas-area high school as the seventh overall pick in the 2006 draft. He took his share of knocks last year, posting a 5-5 record and a perfectly league average (and park-adjusted) ERA+. That was to be expected. After all, what pitcher doesn't navigate some choppy waters when they first arrive in the big leagues.
There are grander expectations on Kershaw's shoulders, though. The kind of expectations that come with a left arm that can command a lively fastball in the low-to-mid 90-mph range and contort perfectly to snap off a 1-to-7 curveball that legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully anointed "Public Enemy No. 1" during spring training last year.
No, being a .500 pitcher long-term won't be good enough for Kershaw, but with a 1.50 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 12 innings already this year, it doesn't look like Los Angeles will have to endure many more fits and starts before the promising lefty blossoms fully.
Few will realize it with much of Chavez Ravine still under the enchanting spell of the dreadlocked one, Manny Ramirez, but the potential emergence of Kershaw could be huge for the Dodgers.
The other NL West contenders have dynamic 1-2 punches at the top of their respective rotations. The Giants have Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain (or Randy Johnson, take your pick). The Diamondbacks have Brandon Webb and Dan Haren. The Dodgers came into this season with Chad Billingsley -- recovering from a fractured leg suffered over the winter and a couple of lousy performances in the NLCS -- and a whole bunch of question marks after that with Derek Lowe off to Atlanta.
Billingsley is already 2-0 on the year and struck out 11 in a win over the Giants Monday night. Kershaw became the youngest Dodger to strike out 13 hitters in a game since the team moved to Los Angeles and the second youngest to whiff that many in franchise history Wednesday.
He also seems to have arrived, giving the Dodgers a legitimate answer to the pitching talents atop the rotations of their chief division rivals.
Billingsley-Kershaw? That duo might not have the name recognition of Lincecum-Cain or Webb-Haren yet, but if they're just as good on the mound, it'll hardly matter to the Dodgers.
