Clayton Kershaw turned back the clock on Sunday against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday, helping the Dodgers avoid being swept while giving Kershaw his first victory of the 2025 season.

Kershaw recorded a season-high seven strikeouts while yielding zero walks, marking it the first time he had a seven strikeout performance since June 8, 2023. It was Kershaw’s first victory since Aug. 18 of last season, coincidentally coming against the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

His outing was a reminder that when he is able to command the zone and execute his pitch selection, he is as dominant as they come, and Kershaw reiterated that he doesn’t feel the effects of Father Time just yet, per Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register.

“Physically, I feel great,” he said after that game. “I don’t feel old. My arm feels good. There’s not really any excuses. It’s just pitch better, pitch like you’re capable of. I think the stuff’s there. The stuff’s there to get people out.”

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Prior to Sunday’s game against St. Louis, the Cardinals displayed a video of Kershaw’s implosion back in Game 4 of the 2014 NLDS, emphasizing Matt Adams’ go-ahead three run home run that helped St. Louis advance to the NLCS. Kershaw referred to the video as a little bush league, as John Denton of MLB.com tweets, but didn’t expect anything less from the Cardinals.

#Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw on the #STLCards showing this Matt Adams three-run HR from the 2014 NLDS in the pregame (via ⁦@jmjones⁩ ): “I think it’s a little bush league, but I don’t expect anything less from these guys. So, it’s no worries.” pic.twitter.com/qSINX7FBgW

— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) June 8, 2025

Kershaw wouldn’t have secured his first win of the season had it not been for the Dodgers offense finally coming through with men on base, with Tommy Edman and Hyeseong Kim contributing for five RBIs in the Dodgers’ 7-3 victory.

Edman discussed the team’s optimism prior to Sunday’s contest on their ability to execute in opportune situations, knowing that they had to come through at some point, per Jeff Jones of MLB.com.

“We knew it was gonna happen eventually,” Edman said. “Just kind of one of those stretches where we didn’t get hits, hits didn’t fall, and we knew they were going to fall eventually.”