Cortney Weil
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Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw has been placed on 15-day injured reserve because of “SI join inflammation,” per ClutchPoints.
The injury seems to have come out of nowhere. There had been no earlier reports about any inflammation, and manager Dave Roberts has made some rather unpopular pitching decisions to preserve Kershaw from injury. Apparently, those decisions didn’t work.
Before this unexpected injury, Kershaw had been having another banner year. So far this season, at 34 years old, Kershaw has a perfect 4-0 record, a 1.80 ERA, and 0.73 WHIP, per ClutchPoints. Not bad at all.
To mitigate his absence, the Dodgers have called up LHP Garrett Cleavinger. Cleavinger has a 5.40 ERA in 1 2/3 innings pitched this year.
Kershaw has had chronic back issues for several years now, and I think it’s the primary cause of his drop in velocity. I guess this is something he just can’t address with surgery, so something they just have to deal with every year.