Clayton Kershaw to start Game 4 for Dodgers on short rest

The Los Angeles Dodgers are bringing back Clayton Kershaw on short rest to start Game 4 in the NLCS against the St. Louis Cardinals and will start Zack Greinke in Game 5, if necessary.

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Kershaw was roughed up in Game 1 when he couldn’t hold a 6-1 lead when he allowed eight earned runs in 6.2 innings as the Dodgers lost 10-9.

The Cardinals scored eight runs in the seventh inning when Kershaw could not get out of a jam and Matt Carpenter has the big hit of the inning when he hit a bases loaded double to chase the presumptive NL Cy Young winner.

THIS JUST IN: Dodgers announce that Clayton Kershaw will start Game 4 on short rest and, if necessary, Zack Greinke will start Game 5.
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 6, 2014

Los Angeles evened the series with a 3-2 win on Saturday with Matt Kemp hitting a solo home run to break an eighth-inning tie.

Game 3 is tonight in St. Louis with the Dodgers sending Hyun-Jin Ryu to the mound against John Lackey with the game on Fox Sports 1 at 9:07 ET.

Kershaw’s start in Game 4 on Tuesday will either be with the Dodgers looking to take a commanding 3-1 lead or to tie the series at two apiece, so he can’t afford to have the blowup like he had in Game 1.

If the series goes to a fifth and decisive Game 6, Greinke will start on Thursday with Adam Wainwright likely to start for the Cardinals unless Cardinals manager Mike Matheny changes his plan and goes with Wainwright in Game 4 and moves back Shelby Miller to Game 5.

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