LOS ANGELES — There’s no shame in losing to Clayton Kershaw, especially at Dodger Stadium. What was a shame, from the Rockies’ point of view, is that they had a chance to beat the Dodgers’ ace left-hander Wednesday night.

Instead, they lost 4-2, as Kershaw improved to 11-2 with a splendid 1.54 ERA in Los Angeles against the Rockies.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner survived a bumpy start, and got over his anger at Rockies rookie starter Tyler Anderson, whom Kershaw believed showed disrespect by delaying the start of the game.

“If we could have cashed in another run or two in the first inning, things might have been different,” manager Bud Black said after Colorado finished its first West Coast road trip of the season with a 4-2 record.

But the Rockies couldn’t pull it off and Kershaw went on to pitch seven strong innings, allowing two runs on five hits and striking out 10. In his last 11 starts at home, Kershaw has gone 10-0 with a 0.65 ERA. Related Articles September 17, 2020 Rockies’ bullpen fails, offense a no-show in another loss to Dodgers

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“Obviously this is a place that’s home so you’re comfortable here. You know what to expect,” Kershaw said. “That’s the beauty of pitching in LA, right? It’s perfect weather all the time. Perfect mound. Just kind of a perfect storm of a situation. You would hope that you do pitch well at your home park. It just so happens that mine’s probably the best place to pitch in baseball.”

Kershaw wasn’t razor sharp early, but got stronger as the game progressed. He suffered a hiccup in the sixth when DJ LeMahieu doubled and scored on Stephen Cardullo’s single, cutting L.A.’s lead to 4-2.

BOX SCORE: Dodgers 4, Rockies 2

Los Angeles’ Kenley Jansen came on in the eighth to notch a four-out save. It was Jansen’s 15th career save with four or more outs.

Colorado suffered a major scare in the fourth inning when a Kershaw fastball hit right fielder Carlos Gonzalez in the right hand, bruising Gonzalez’s pinkie. Preliminary X-rays were negative, and Gonzalez said he expects to return soon.

Gonzalez dropped to the ground after getting hit and was in obvious pain. He was examined by team trainers and immediately left the game and was replaced by Cardullo.

“It’s bruised and swollen, but nothing bad,” Gonzalez said. “I am going to try me best to get back as quickly as possible. Good thing we have a day off tomorrow.”

The Rockies jumped on Kershaw in the first inning, but they failed to cash in. It cost them. Charlie Blackmon opened the game with a walk and LeMahieu and Arenado singled to load the bases. But Kershaw struck out both Gonzalez and Gerardo Parra, giving up only a sacrifice fly to Mark Reynolds.

“That doesn’t happen very often, so when you do (load the bases) you would like to cash in,” Black said. “But (Kershaw) is so good … I mean, he’s tough. But we had some good at-bats in that first inning.”

Colorado’s 1-0 lead was erased in the second when Scott Van Slyke ripped into Anderson’s 86 mph cutter for a two-out solo homer. Anderson, lost for the third consecutive game after being charged with four runs (two earned) on six hits over five innings. His ERA sits at 7.32.

“Tyler threw the ball better, for sure,” Black said. “We saw a better (pitch) angle, like we talked about prior to the game. I thought the changeup was effective and he threw some good sliders. He had fastball command for most of the night. So I thought it was an encouraging outing.”

The Dodgers’ three-run fifth inning was Anderson’s undoing. A leadoff double by Chris Taylor was compounded when Anderson made a throwing error to first off Kershaw’s sacrifice bunt. That opened the gates for RBI singles by Kike Hernandez and Corey Seager and an RBI fielder’s choice by Adrian Gonzalez.

Anderson initially was going to throw to third in an attempt to nail Taylor, but then he changed his mind, whirled and skipped a rushed throw to first base.

“The misplay came back to haunt Tyler on the bunt,” Black said. “If he makes that play, the whole inning changes. They might game one instead of three. But that’s baseball.”

Said Anderson: “If you get that out right there at first, they probably score one. And we could still be playing. Unfortunately that cost us the game.”

Before the game even began, Kershaw was upset with Anderson, saying that Anderson made him wait to throw the game’s first pitch. Anderson made his way to the Rockies dugout from the bullpen in right field after completing his pregame warm-ups and Kershaw got hot about the delay.

“That was one of the more disrespectful things I have been a part of in a game,” Kershaw said. “I really didn’t appreciate that. The game starts at 7:10 and has started at 7:10 here for a long time. Just go around, or finish earlier. But yeah, that wasn’t appreciated for sure.”

Kershaw said the incident was not the reason why he walked Blackmon to open the game.

“I had Blackmon down 0-2 right away, I just couldn’t finish him off,” Kershaw said.

Anderson said he had no intention of irritating Kershaw.

“I was just throwing a little bit extra down (in the bullpen) today,” Anderson said. “It wasn’t intentional at all. Actually, I was surprised … We were in foul territory and I was surprised that they wouldn’t let him pitch. So we started jogging.”