Nick Piecoro

USA TODAY Sports

No one would argue the Arizona Diamondbacks have suddenly figured out Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw, who will start against them in Saturday's season-opener in Australia. But it's probably fair to say they've found ways to beat him in recent years.

Generally speaking, when the Diamondbacks faced Kershaw early in his career, things did not go well for them. The Dodgers won eight times of Kershaw's first 11 starts against them. He posted a 1.92 ERA and struck out 77 batters in 65 2/3 innings. Basically, he did to them what he did to the rest of baseball. He dominated.

But something changed starting in July 2012. The Diamondbacks started winning. Again and again. The past six times Kershaw has faced the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers have lost. Kershaw got the decision in four of those games.

It could just be a random thing, like a ball finding a hole here and there. The numbers certainly don't suggest the pendulum has swung too drastically: In those six starts, Kershaw has a 2.72 ERA. He has 39 strikeouts in 39 2/3 innings. And he's still turned in several impressive starts in that span, including three games in which he pitched seven innings and gave up zero or one run.

But, still, there's the final score.

"Sometimes," Diamondbacks hitting coach Turner Ward said, "those games are also about who's on the mound for us."

He's right: In Kershaw's past six starts, the Diamondbacks have won 5-4, 3-2, 3-0, 1-0, 2-0 and 5-3. It seems that whoever has pitched has pulled off a decent Kershaw impersonation.

"You can't expect to score a lot of runs off this guy, even though that's the objective," Ward said. "The reality is, you better do the little things. That's kind of what we're focused on as a group. We're focused on doing the little things really well. People talk about the situational hitting, but that's what it's going to come down to beating a guy like that. Being able to move a guy over or get him home in a tough situation."

We'll find out Saturday if the Diamondbacks will be able to take advantage of those scarce opportunities when they face him at the Sydney Cricket Ground. We'll also find out if left-hander Wade Miley can become the latest Diamondbacks pitcher to rise to the level of competition with Kershaw on the mound.

Piecoro writes for the Arizona Republic