Clayton Kershaw slowly backpedaled as the baseball soared to left field, panic briefly consuming him. He hunched over slightly as the ball off Nick Hundley’s bat continued toward the wall with help from strong gusts. It was threatening to land in the seats and turn Kershaw’s shaky outing against the San Francisco Giants into an untimely disaster in the fifth inning Saturday.
But the ball died, like so many do, at the AT&T Park warning track. Joc Pederson settled there to catch it for the third out. Kershaw wiped the sweat off from under his cap on his walk off the field.