Dodgers shut down Clayton Kershaw's rehab due to lingering shoulder soreness

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw has been shut down for a week after experiencing lingering soreness in his comeback from left shoulder surgery.

Kershaw, 36, had an MRI that "showed no new incidents," manager Dave Roberts said before Monday night's game at the Chicago White Sox.

"You go through surgery. You go through rehab. You start throwing. You ramp up velocity, workload," Roberts said, "and there is bound to be some soreness, and that's where we're at.

"So then you do the scan to see if there's a new incident, which there wasn't, so that's why we feel very comfortable and confident that this is just a blip."

Kershaw had surgery in November, a month after he recorded just one out while allowing six runs in Game 1 of the 2023 National League Division Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner re-signed with Los Angeles in February, staying with his only big league club, the one that drafted him No. 7 overall in 2006. He has not pitched in the majors since that disastrous NLDS outing at the end of last saeason.

Kershaw made a rehab start with Class-A Rancho Cucamonga on Wednesday night, throwing 37 pitches while working three innings of one-run ball.

After he takes a week off from throwing, Kershaw will begin to ramp up again.

"A week is not long enough to worry about cutting into the buildup that he's already had," Roberts said. "But I think it's a way to kind of get us back to get the soreness out, so that's the main thing."

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Reporting by The Associated Press.