Red flag for L.A. in victory
LOS ANGELES — Justin Turner homered and drove in five runs, Clayton Kershaw won despite giving up four homers and the Los Angeles Dodgers roared to a 9-5 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night in their NL Division Series opener.
Turner hit a three-run homer and Yasiel Puig added an RBI double before the Dodgers made their first out against Arizona starter Taijuan Walker, who lasted just one inning in his playoff debut.
Turner added an RBI single in the fourth and another in the eighth. The red-bearded slugger tied a Dodgers record for most RBIs in a postseason game, sharing it with Pedro Guerrero and Davey Lopes.
A.J. Pollock, J.D. Martinez, Ketel Marte and Jeff Mathis homered off Kershaw, but Arizona’s euphoria from its wild-card victory over Colorado was erased during a rough first inning in Chavez Ravine.
Puig and Corey Seager both tripled and drove in two runs for the 104-win Dodgers, who beat their NL West rivals comfortably even while Kershaw added another weird chapter to his spotty playoff history.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner gave up only four hits in 61⁄3 innings, but still became the first pitcher in team history to yield four homers in a postseason game.
Kershaw struck out seven, but the left-hander’s frequent inability to match his regularseason brilliance in October remains a specter. He struggled with the long ball again after serving up a career-high 23 homers during the regular season, but earned his fifth victory in 15 postseason starts.