Load management by the Los Angeles Dodgers has helped Kershaw achieve a five-game winning streak in August.

On Wednesday, after retiring the 14th consecutive Reds batter and securing the last out of the fifth inning, Clayton Kershaw strode off the mound and headed back to the home dugout. He had thrown just 72 pitches, while Edgardo Henriquez was warming up in the bullpen as the Dodgers came to bat in the bottom of the inning.

Kershaw remained seated on the bench in the dugout until the top of the sixth inning, when the bullpen door opened and Henriquez jogged toward the mound. The veteran left-hander’s pitching stint was officially over.

“I think it was clear this wouldn’t be a long outing for me,” Kershaw said. “‘Doc’ (Roberts’ nickname) recognized that, and without a doubt, he made the right call.”

Despite striking out six batters and issuing no walks in a one-run five-inning performance, Kershaw admitted after the game that he knew from the start his pitches weren’t at their best. Still, he was able to adjust and demonstrate his dominance.

Considering Kershaw’s feelings about his pitching and the fact he was pitching after a regular rest day—not the usual five days off most of his starts this season—manager Roberts’ decision to pull him after five innings in favor of bullpen pitchers was completely reasonable.

In the past, this decision might not have been accepted. But part of Kershaw’s late-career evolution has been understanding his limits without letting them hold him back.

“I think age catches up with you, and he’s smart enough to know how many bullets he has left. And you always want to perform well,” Roberts said. “So I think there’s a good relationship between him and me. We both understand what’s needed from him, when to push, and when to pull back to get him ready for the next game.”

The Dodgers’ careful management of Kershaw’s workload appears to be paying off. He has been outstanding in August, with a perfect 5-0 record and a 1.88 ERA (6 earned runs over 28.2 innings). This marks Kershaw’s first personal five-game winning streak in a single season since the end of 2022.

In these five starts during August, Kershaw threw a total of 395 pitches. According to OptaSTATS, which has tracked pitch counts since 1988, he is the only major league starter to win five consecutive games in a calendar month while throwing fewer than 400 pitches.

“It’s been a good August,” Kershaw said. “Physically, everything feels great. I think sometimes things can change from one start to the next, but overall it’s been wonderful. The team has won a lot of games, which is great. It’s fun to be part of it at this point in the season.”

Under Kershaw’s leadership, the entire rotation has performed strongly in August. As of today’s game start, the Dodgers’ starting pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.28, ranking third in the majors behind the Cubs and Red Sox.

With three games remaining in August, the rotation’s 137 innings pitched is a season high for the unit in a full month. Heading into this weekend, Dodgers starters have thrown 55.2 more innings than the bullpen. Previously, the largest innings gap between the rotation and bullpen was 22.2 innings in May.

With Shohei Ohtani’s innings stretched to five—his current limit for now—the Dodgers’ six-man starting rotation has finally become more or less the team they envisioned at the start of the season. After seeing several key pitchers injured in the first half, the starters have become Los Angeles’ true strength just in time for the stretch run.

“We haven’t seen starting pitchers perform this healthily and effectively in two or three years,” Roberts recently said. “So we had to go through some ups and downs early in the season to get the players back. Now they’ve done it. They’re great. Obviously, we value these players a lot. It makes everyone’s day a lot better.”