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Clayton Kershaw pitched his way to freedom while earning his first win in 2 1/2 months.

The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner won’t be facing any further restrictions in his next start after a solid outing in the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ 8-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night.

Five Dodgers homered including Max Muncy with a pair Marshall Newhouse Jersey , and the team’s six homers were the most they’ve hit at home since also launching six on Sept. 9, 2013, against Arizona.

”You want to get guys back in the dugout as fast as possible the way they’re swinging the bats,” said Kershaw, who was limited by a pitch count in his last three outings.

Ivan Nova (4-6) became the first pitcher in Pirates history to give up five homers in a game. Pittsburgh has been outscored 25-4 in the first two games of the series.

”They’re horses over there. It’s a stacked team,” Pirates third baseman David Freese said. ”They’ve just got really good approaches right now and they’re on time, all of them are on time.”

The Dodgers have 11 homers three days into July and 122 so far this season after slugging a major league-leading and franchise-record 55 in June.

”It’s pretty remarkable what we’re doing,” manager Dave Roberts said. ”When I look at what we’ve accomplished offensively, we’re in some uncharted territory.”

Kershaw (2-4) allowed two runs and four hits in six innings of his third start since coming off the disabled list. The left-handed ace’s two strikeouts were against Nova and Kershaw didn’t walk anyone to earn his first victory since April 15 at Arizona. He had two losses and four straight no-decisions since.

”His velo is down a little bit but he’s still got that cutter and he works it. He’s just a guy that locates,” Freese said. ”You can sense when he’s out there that he trusts every pitch he’s about to throw. That’s that makes him really good.”

Kershaw had not gone as late as July 3 with just one win since his rookie year in 2008 when he didn’t earn his second victory until Aug. 7.

”It’s kind of what we wanted,” Roberts said of Kershaw. ”The fifth and sixth innings were probably the best for me. The ball came out well. We can feel confident going forward the reins are off.”

Joc Pederson and Muncy homered back-to-back for the second straight game.

Pederson sent Nova’s first pitch of the game over the right-field wall and Muncy followed with a shot to center field for a 2-0 lead.

”They have a really good lineup but we’ve got to be able to do a better job than that,” Nova said.

Muncy led off the third with his team-high 20th homer for a 3-1 lead.

”I never thought I could hit this many home runs in such a short amount of time,” said Muncy, who has played in just 63 games this season.

Freese provided the lone bright spot for the Pirates, going 3 for 3 with a pair of RBI singles that twice cut the Dodgers’ lead to one run Zay Jones Jersey , and a solo homer off reliever Yimi Garcia.

Chris Taylor kept the slugfest going in the fourth with a two-run shot that made it 5-2. He went 3 for 4 with a strikeout and finished a single shy of hitting for the cycle.

”It seems to be contagious up and down the lineup, which makes it fun in the dugout,” Taylor said.

Yasmani Grandal led off the sixth with a homer and Taylor doubled to deep center field to chase Nova.

Nova gave up a season-high seven earned runs and nine hits, struck out three and walked two in five innings.

”It’s not fun to give up that many homers,” Nova said. ”Sometimes you give up that many runs and you don’t feel that bad, but giving up five homers is too much.”

Nova’s replacement didn’t fare any better. Enrique Hernandez blasted a two-run homer on the first pitch from Dovydas Neverauskas, extending the Dodgers’ lead to 8-2.

Dodgers slugger Matt Kemp’s run of eight hits in eight consecutive at-bats ended when he struck out to end the first. One night after tying a career high with five hits, including a three-run homer, Kemp was hitless in four at-bats with two other strikeouts.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Pirates: RHP Joe Musgrove (right index finger infection) went on the DL retroactive to June 30. He was scheduled to start Wednesday’s series finale.

Dodgers: RHP Walker Buehler was moved to the DL retroactive to June 29. He began a rehab assignment for Single-A Rancho Cucamonga.

UP NEXT

RHP Clay Holmes (0-0, 2.25 ERA) will replace Musgrove in the series finale on Wednesday. Dodgers LHP Rich Hill (1-3, 4.68) took a no-hitter into extra innings in Pittsburgh last August before allowing a walk-off solo homer in the 10th.

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One year ago, the Vegas Golden Knights were in the midst of forming their first team. On Sunday, they were in the middle of the free-agent market as they look to fine-tune the roster for another run at the Stanley Cup Final.

The defending Western Conference champions signed veteran forward Paul Stastny to a reported three-year, $19.5 million contract, hours after losing David Perron.

Stastny totaled 53 points (16 goals Christian Kirksey Jersey , 37 assists) in 82 games last season, appearing in 63 games with the St. Louis Blues before being acquired by the Winnipeg Jets on Feb. 26. During the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs, the 32-year-old Quebec City native recorded a career-high 15 points (six goals, nine assists) and helped Winnipeg reach the Western Conference Final before losing to Vegas in five games.

”Sometimes you gotta go with your gut feeling. Sometimes it’s just one of those things that it’s best fit hockey-wise, family-wise and everything in between,” Stastny said during a conference call Sunday. ”They always played such a high, kind of fast-paced game, aggressive, everyone involved, not just one line, all four lines involved.”

During his 12-year NHL career, Stastny has 220 goals and 426 assists, with the 646 points ranking 33rd among active players.

The addition of Stastny figures to take some pressure off top-line scorers William Karlsson, a restricted free agent who is expected to ink a new deal with Vegas, Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith.

”We have had our eye on him for quite a while Shaq Lawson Jersey , he’s a really talented, skilled guy – he’s a playmaker, and you always want playmakers,” Golden Knights general manager George McPhee said. ”We do like having centers, because you can move centers around the lineup, have centers on the wing. You can get wingers to play center … but they’re not very good.”

The second-year team also locked up bruising forward Ryan Reaves, who was acquired in a trade with Pittsburgh in February and proved to be an asset during the playoffs, and came to terms with free-agent defenseman Nick Holden, who McPhee said will fit in nicely after the departure of free agent Luca Sbisa.

”It basically keeps the construction of our defense intact,” McPhee said. ”Luca has moved on, we thought (Holden) would fit really well in that spot. Everything stays the same on our defense. We have our shut down guys, we have our speed guys and we’re deep.”

Both Reaves and Holden’s two-year contracts are reportedly worth a little more than $2 million per season.

McPhee said the team also has signed forwards Brandon Pirri, Daniel Carr, Alex Gallant and Curtis McKenzie, defenseman Jimmy Oligny and goaltenders Maxime Lagace and Zach Fucale.

Meanwhile Zach Miller Jersey , after turning in a career season with the Golden Knights, Perron agreed to a four-year, $16 million contract to return to the St. Louis Blues, while veteran forward James Neal, an unrestricted free agent, remained in limbo. Neal, who finished with 25 goals and 44 points in 71 games at the end of his six-year, $30 million deal, is 31 years old and is looking for a longer-term contract than the Golden Knights were reportedly willing to offer.

”We’re still talking to people and we’ll see how things develop,” said McPhee, who added the team is still negotiating with the 31-year-old Neal. ”We’re trying to be a little more circumspect, and it looks like the league is trying to do that. That’s why we went three years on Stastny, Reaves was two years. We’re okay giving term to younger guys but older guys you gotta be careful.”

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