Clayton Kershaw set to rejoin the Dodgers’ rotation Monday

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Clayton Kershaw is ready to come off the disabled list.

The two-time Cy Young winner struck out nine batters over five innings in a minor-league rehab start last night at Double-A and Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register reports that he’s scheduled to return from a teres major muscle strain Monday against the Nationals.

Kershaw tossed 6.1 innings of one-run ball to beat the Diamondbacks in the season-opening game in Australia, but he’s been on the disabled list since March 29. He threw 86 pitches yesterday, so Kershaw should be more or less fully stretched out.

All the missed time will make winning a third Cy Young award very difficult, so Kershaw might have to settle for making a run at a fourth straight ERA title in the first year of his $215 million contract extension.

Dodgers place pitcher Noah Syndergaard on injured list with no timetable for return

dodgers syndergaard
Katie Stratman/USA TODAY Sports
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CINCINNATI — The Los Angeles Dodgers placed pitcher Noah Syndergaard on the 15-day injured list Thursday with a blister on the index finger of his right throwing hand.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the timetable for Syndergaard’s return is unknown despite the 15-day designation.

“The physical, the mental, the emotional part, as he’s talked about, has taken a toll on him,” Roberts said. “So, the ability to get him away from this. He left today to go back to Los Angeles to kind of get back to normalcy.”

Syndergaard allowed six runs and seven hits in three innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night, raising his ERA to 7.16.

Syndergaard (1-4) has surrendered at least five runs in three straight starts.

Syndergaard has been trying to return to the player he was before Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the better part of the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Roberts said Syndergaard will need at least “a few weeks” to both heal and get away from baseball and “reset.”

“I think searching and not being comfortable with where he was at in the moment is certainly evident in performance,” Roberts said. “So hopefully this time away will provide more clarity on who he is right now as a pitcher.

“Trying to perform when you’re searching at this level is extremely difficult. I applaud him from not running from it, but it’s still very difficult. Hopefully it can be a tale of two stories, two halves when he does come back.”