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Clayton Kershaw Strikes Out 15 Giants As Dodgers Sweep San Francisco 2-1

The three-time Cy Young Award winner disassembled the Giants hitters, throwing a complete game with 15 strikeouts and Los Angeles completed a three-game sweep of their hated rivals with a 2-1 victory at Dodger Stadium.

Clayton Kershaw made sure the Dodgers brought their brooms with them on Wednesday night at Chavez Ravine.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner disassembled the Giants hitters, throwing a complete game with a career-high 15 strikeouts and Los Angeles completed a three-game sweep of their hated rivals with a 2-1 victory at Dodger Stadium.

"He had 15 strikeouts? Wow," Dodgers' manager Don Mattingly said when he found out how many punch outs Kershaw had. "He laid the gauntlet down in the sense that it's that time of the year. If you got these guys down at all, you want to keep them there."

Mattingly approached the mound with two outs in the top of the ninth, prompting Kershaw to get upset assuming he was coming out of the game.

Instead, Mattingly just wanted to make sure Kershaw had enough bullets in the chamber, opting to rest his bullpen and allow Kershaw to finish off the Giants.

"It was probably 50-50," Kershaw said of whether or not he was coming out of the game. "By the time he passed the foul line and hadn't motioned, I had a pretty good idea I was staying in the game.

The masterful performance by Kershaw increased the Dodgers lead in the NL West to 6.5 games over the Giants with just 30 left to play on the season.

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It was the first time they swept the Giants at Dodger Stadium since June 24-26 of 2013.

Carl Crawford got the Dodgers on the board in the bottom of the second inning with an RBI double off the wall in left center. Giants' centerfielder, Angel Pagan, bobbled the ball, allowing Justin Turner to score on the play.

Crawford went 2-for-3 on the night and has two doubles, a home run and five RBI in his last 21 games.

The Giants tied the game when a ground ball to third by Pagan was misplayed by Turner who tipped the ball off his glove and into shallow left field. Because the ball slowed down and rolled into left, it allowed Kelby Tomlinson to score from second base.

Chase Utley hit his first home run in a Dodger uniform with a solo shot to right center off of Mike Leake. It was Utley's ninth home run at Dodger Stadium in his career, and would prove to be the winning run.

"Wearing a different uniform made this homer a different feeling," Utley said about his first career home run in Dodger blue. "I'm just trying to put good at-bats together and contribute in anyway."

Leake was valiant in defeat, allowing two runs on five hits with three strikeouts, but the night was all about Kershaw and his career marks.

"He's going to keep it a one-run game," Leake said of going against Kershaw. "its not added stress for me, but it's a fun challenge. Unfortunately, we came out on the losing end."

The reigning NL MVP extending his winning streak to 7-0 with a 0.90 ERA in his last 10 starts. He has three complete games and two shutouts over that span.

"Good wins," Kershaw said of the winning streak. "This series proves that we can beat them, but we still have four more against them."

Kershaw struck out Andrew Susac with two outs and a runner on first in the top of the eighth for his 13th strikeout of the game. With Susac getting called out on strikes, Kershaw eclipsed his career high in strikeouts in a single season with 249. The lefty's previous record was 248 set in 2011.

Kershaw threw 132 pitches, tied for his career-high. The 15 strikeouts against the Giants were the most by a single pitcher in any game against San Francisco since Nolan Ryan struck out 16 on Sept. 9, 1987.

Kershaw came to the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning to the chants of "MVP! MVP! MVP!" by the Dodger Stadium crowd.

The Dodgers won each game of the three-game series by just one run, and six of the 15 games against the rivals this year have been decided by one run.

Game Notes:
Bruce Bochy was ejected by umpire Mike Winters for the second straight game. This time, Winters was at third base when he booted Bochy for arguing from the dugout.

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