SAN FRANCISCO — Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw exited with low back pain before the bottom of the fifth inning of Thursday’s 5-3 win over the Giants at Oracle Park.
As he warmed up to pitch the fifth, Kershaw appeared to tweak something in his penultimate warmup throw. He then tried to throw one more in order to test it, but motioned over to the Dodgers dugout right away. He left the game with trainer Thomas Albert.
Immediately, Kershaw appeared to tell manager Dave Roberts that the injury was related to his back. The future Hall of Famer has dealt with back problems throughout the latter part of his career, landing on the injured list with a back injury in five of his last seven seasons.
This season, Kershaw missed a month with right SI joint inflammation, which occurred during a cross-country flight. When healthy, Kershaw has been one of the Dodgers’ best pitchers, posting a 2.64 ERA over 15 starts.