The return of Public Enemy No. 1

PublicEnemyNo1v2014

By Jon Weisman

Clayton Kershaw used his first Spring Training outing of the season to work out the kinks, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t score on the superb scale.

Kershaw ended his first inning of Cactus League work this year with this “big rainbow curve,” as Vin Scully described it, to strike out Miguel Montero. Echoes of Public Enemy No. 1 from Spring Training 2006.

The two-time Cy Young Award winner was touched for three runs in his two innings of work today, allowing five hits and a walk while striking out two. He had the hat trick of allowing hard-hit balls to all three outfield positions in the first inning — the first two were flagged down by Joc Pederson in center and Yasiel Puig in right, but the third went over Carl Crawford’s head in left field for an RBI double by Martin Prado that gave Arizona the first run of the game.

The Diamondbacks then scored twice in the second off Kershaw on a Gerardo Parra double between Pederson and Puig (compounded by an error by Pederson), an A.J. Pollock triple past Crawford and an Aaron Hill single.

En route to his 2013 Cy Young, Kershaw had a 4.18 ERA with a 1.357 WHIP, compared with a 1.83 ERA and 0.915 WHIP in the regular season.

Kershaw struck out slugger Paul Goldschmidt on his 42nd pitch of the game to end his official outing, then went to the bullpen for more work to round out his day.

Arizona led the Dodgers, 3-1, entering the seventh inning.

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