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Dodgers sweep Cubs with 9-4 win despite rough outing for Clayton Kershaw

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The ball was flying on Sunday in Dodger Stadium, where a highly anticipated pitcher’s duel between Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw and Chicago Cubs left-hander Jon Lester turned into a power-point presentation, the teams combining to club seven home runs, and neither esteemed starter lasting five innings.

The Dodgers weathered one of the worst regular-season starts of Kershaw’s career, riding homers by Cody Bellinger, Enrique Hernandez, Austin Barnes and Yasiel Puig to a 9-4 victory and a three-game sweep of the defending World Series champions.

A three-time Cy Young Award winner who is often hailed as “the best pitcher on the planet,” Kershaw is used to stifling opponents and pitching deep into games.

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He was in no mood afterward to dissect a 4 1/3-inning effort in which he had sporadic command of his fastball, slider and curve and was rocked for four earned runs and a career high-tying 11 hits, including three homers.

Did he look at this as a one-game anomaly? “Sure,” Kershaw said.

Was it just one of those bizarre games you see every so often? “I guess so.”

Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo and catcher Willson Contreras, who both homered Sunday, have had success against you. Is it their approach, or did you make mistakes against them? “I don’t know, ask them,” Kershaw said.

How was your feel for the slider today? “Fine.”

Was fastball command an issue? “Anybody else?”

And so it went.

Kershaw, who entered with a 7-2 record and 2.01 ERA, ran his pitch count to 70 through three innings, 99 through four, and it was at 109 when manager Dave Roberts was forced to pull him with a 6-4 lead, two outs shy of a potential win.

It was the first time Kershaw had allowed at least 10 hits, four earned runs and three homers in a regular-season or postseason game.

“Clayton made some good pitches that they were spoiling,” Roberts said. “The pitch count rose pretty quickly, and they got some big homers. It was getting a little haywire there.”

The Dodgers shut out the Cubs on a total of five hits in the first two games of the series. Kershaw had a feeling it might be a strange day when his first two pitches went for broken-bat singles by Javier Baez and Kris Bryant.

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“Yeah, it’s part of baseball,” he said. “I made a couple of OK pitches to start the game, and they ended up with hits. So yeah, it was one of those days.”

Kershaw escaped the first unscathed. Contreras capped a 12-pitch at-bat with a homer to right-center for a 1-0 Cubs lead in the second, an inning that ended with Kershaw striking out Bryant with two on.

With two on and no outs in the bottom of the second, Bellinger, two pitches after attempting to bunt, jumped on a hanging 1-and-2 slider from Lester and drove his team-leading 10th home run to right for a 3-1 lead.

Hernandez, with two aboard in the third, drove a 3-0 fastball over the left-field wall for a 6-1 lead. Of his 25 hits this season, 19 have gone for extra bases — 14 doubles, one triple and four home runs. His batting average is a modest .253, but his on-base-plus-slugging percentage is a robust .860.

Kershaw escaped a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the third, but he was tagged for two homers in the fourth, Baez’s solo shot to left and Rizzo’s two-run shot deep into the right-field seats that pulled the Cubs to within 6-4.

Kershaw convinced Roberts to keep him in the game. Then Addison Russell and Albert Almora Jr. opened the fifth with singles and advanced on Mike Montgomery’s sacrifice bunt.

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Roberts summoned reliever Josh Fields, who struck out Baez and Bryant with runners on second and third to snuff out the threat. Fields retired the side in order in the sixth to earn the victory.

“To Clayton’s credit, he wanted to keep going,” Roberts said. “Fortunately for us, we have a bullpen that’s been lights out.”

Lester, who entered with a 3-2 record and 3.19 ERA, gave up six earned runs and seven hits in 3 1/3 innings.

Barnes’ solo shot to left-center off Montgomery pushed the lead to 7-4 in the fifth. Puig, who entered in the first inning for ailing outfielder Franklin Gutierrez, sent a 450-foot blast into the left-center-field seats off reliever Hector Rondon to make it 9-4 in the seventh.

“The offense was great — we made Lester work, too, and put some big swings on the ball with runners in scoring position,” Kershaw said. “No one gave up a run in this series but me, so it was a good series for us.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

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Follow Mike DiGiovanna on Twitter @MikeDiGiovanna

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