Dodgers Win 5th Consecutive Game, Down D-Backs 6-4
(CBS) -- Clayton Kershaw (10-4) allowed four runs, none of them earned runs in seven innings of work, and struck out eight Arizona Diamondbacks, as the Dodgers won their fifth straight game, 6-4.
Dodger pitching has allowed just one earned run in the last 45 innings.
Los Angeles forged ahead in the second inning when Juan Rivera smoked a line drive into the stands on the first pitch he saw as a member of the Dodgers.
Rivera was acquired on Tuesday in a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Dodgers would score four more times before the end of the seventh inning, thanks to a sixth inning homer by Matt Kemp, his 23rd and two more RBIs for Kemp in the seventh on a single.
Kemp also gunned down Arizona's Willie Bloomquist at the plate in the bottom of the first inning.
Arizona , who has scored at least a run in every game this year at Chase Field, put up a rally in the seventh inning, scoring four times, capped by a three-run shot by Xavier Nady.
All the runs came after an error by Juan Uribe.
The Diamondbacks would get no closer, as Javy Guerra picked up his fifth save of the season, getting Brandon Allen to strikeout, leaving the tying run on first base.
With Kershaw's eight strikeouts, the southpaw has passed Detroit's Justin Verlander as the major league leader in strikeouts.
