Kershaw, Turner pace 2-1 win

Having lost four of their last five games, the Dodgers went into last night’s bout with San Diego desperately needing a win.

So they turned to Clayton Kershaw.

But even with Kershaw tossing a gem, the Dodgers went into the bottom of the eighth trailing the Padres 1-0 and had mustered only two hits off of San Diego’s Tyson Ross, who matched Kershaw pitch for pitch.

Carl Crawford opened the inning with a chopper over the mound that the 6’6” Ross batted down and scrambled to gather in but his hurried throw bounced to first and Crawford beat it by a step.

Justin Turner then came to the plate and Ross hung a breaking ball over the plate that Turner clubbed into the left field bleachers for a 2-1 lead.

Kenley Jansen came on in the ninth to close the game, walking one and striking out two to get the save.

Kershaw struck out 10, walked two and tossed a three-hitter to improve his record to 15-3 with a 1.82 ERA.

After taking two of three, the Dodgers continue the home stand this weekend with a three-game set against the Mets. The Dodgers now have a 3.5 game lead over San Francisco. The Giants won a protest over a rain-shortened game but eventually lost 2-1. The Giants then took the regularly scheduled game 5-3. When all the dust had settled the Dodgers had picked up a half-game in the standings.

The Dodgers hope to get a little healthier this weekend with Hanley Ramirez expected to return to the lineup Sunday and Hyun-Jin Ryu close to returning to the rotation after a hip injury. Zack Greinke, who had his start pushed back to Saturday, reported no pain in his elbow in a light workout on Thursday. Juan Uribe is still slowed with a hamstring pull.