Clayton Kershaw adds to his Dodgers legend with another pitching gem

Saturday night began with a pregame ceremony for Manny Mota, the former pinch-hitter extraordinaire, coach, broadcaster and community activist who became the sixth player selected as one of the Legends of Dodger Baseball.

The rest of the evening belonged to the legend currently inhabiting the Dodgers dugout, Clayton Kershaw burnishing his Hall of Fame resume with seven innings of pure dominance in a 1-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals before a crowd of 48,763.

Kershaw retired the first 13 batters to kick off a seven-inning, two-hit, nine-strikeout, no-walk effort that improved the three-time National League Cy Young Award winner to 5-1 with a 1.89 earned-run average in six starts this season.

Of Kershaw’s 88 pitches, 68 were strikes, the second-highest percentage (77.1%) of his career. He threw first-pitch strikes to 19 of 23 batters and did not allow a runner past first base.

Kershaw, who notched his 200th career win in his previous Dodger Stadium start, needed only 43 pitches to breeze through the first four innings, retiring all 12 batters, four by strikeout, and he whiffed Willson Contreras with a nasty 86-mph slider to start the fifth.

But Dylan Carlson reached out for a 2-and-1, up-and-away fastball and poked a clean single to right-center field to break up Kershaw’s perfect game .

Kershaw retired the side in order in the sixth, striking out Andrew Knizner and Lars Nootbar with sliders and getting Tommy Edman to ground out. Paul Goldschmidt singled to right to open the seventh but did not even advance to second.

Dodgers center fielder James Outman rolls after making a diving catch in the third inning against the Cardinals on Saturday.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

Kershaw got Nolan Arenado to pop out to second, struck out Contreras on a looping, 71.5-mph curve and got Carlson to pop out to second.

The Dodgers scored in the second inning when James Outman, who had struck out in seven of his previous eight at-bats, grounded a one-out single to left-center off Cardinals left-hander Jordan Montgomery, stole second, took third when the throw caromed off him and into left field and scored on Austin Barnes’ single to center.

Outman also lined a single to center in the fourth inning, easing concerns that the hot-hitting rookie might be at the start of his first slump.

“It’s been a tough few days for James, but even today, he came in fresh and positive, expecting something good to happen, as opposed to kind of running away and hiding,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game.

Carlson prevented the Dodgers from adding to their lead when he made a spectacular over-the-shoulder, behind-the-head, Jim Edmonds-like catch on the warning track in center to rob Mookie Betts in the fifth inning.

St. Louis threatened off Dodgers reliever Evan Phillips in the eighth when Knizner walked and shortstop Chris Taylor couldn’t field Nootbar’s hard grounder to his right cleanly, an error that put a Cardinals runner on second for the first time in the game. Pinch-hitter Brendan Donovan followed with a hard line drive toward center, but Taylor was positioned perfectly to make the inning-ending catch.