LOS ANGELES -- Clayton Kershaw made a nifty return to form.

Kershaw retired 18 consecutive batters and struck out 12 in

eight dominant innings as the Los Angeles Dodgers, boosted by Carl

Crawford's two home runs, beat the Milwaukee Brewers 2-0 Sunday.

The 2011 NL Cy Young winner began the season with a shutout over

San Francisco, and soon extended his scoreless streak to 16

innings.

Kershaw (3-2) failed to get through the sixth inning in each of

his last two starts.

"It was good to see Kershaw back to his old self," Crawford

said. "He struggled his last two outings, so to get him back on

track is a plus for us."

Kershaw left the clubhouse before reporters were allowed in

after the game to tend to a personal matter.

"He's a great pitcher," said Ramon Hernandez, joined the

Dodgers this season and hadn't caught the All-Star in a game.

"Kershaw locates every pitch. He has an idea what he wants to do.

He's very smart. He always has a plan what he wants to do with

every hitter he's facing."

Kershaw scattered four hits and didn't walk a batter while

lowering his ERA to 1.73. The left-hander, who led the NL in ERA in

each of the previous two seasons, hasn't allowed more than three

earned runs in any of his last 18 starts -- the longest active

streak in the majors. The last time he did was July 24, 2012, when

he gave up eight at St. Louis.

"We ran into some good pitching," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke

said, shaking his head. "This guy today, I wouldn't want any part

of him. When he's on, you're going to struggle to score. When he's

commanding the fastball inside, you're in big trouble because

there's not much you can do with the pitch. And he knows when to

throw the offspeed stuff away, so you can't cover all of the

plate."

Kershaw stranded runners in scoring position in each of the

first two innings, retiring Jonathan Lucroy on a double-play

grounder in the first and striking out Martin Maldonado to end the

second.

Kershaw gave up a leadoff double in the eighth to Carlos Gomez.

The speedy runner tried to advance on Maldonado's broken-bat

comebacker to Kershaw and was tagged out by third baseman Juan Uribe in a rundown.

"That was an unbelievable play he made," Uribe said. "This

guy, he can pitch, he can hit and he can make a good play, too.

He's a player. He's unbelievable. You want to make plays for

pitchers like that. Guys like that hustle the game along and they

want to win the game. I'm happy for him that he won today."

Brandon League pitched a perfect ninth inning for his eighth

save in nine chances.

Crawford homered on the first pitch of the game from Kyle Lohse

(1-2). It was the fourth time Lohse had given up a home run to his

first batter in 336 career starts, and the first one that came on

his very first pitch.

"The past week, guys have been getting ahead of me with the

first pitch right down the middle. So I just picked today to be

aggressive with the first pitch," Crawford said. "This is a tough

ballpark to hit home runs in, but they say the ball flies better

here in the daytime. So I caught a break today."

Crawford's second homer came on an 0-2 count in the fifth inning

and landed in the right field pavilion. It was his sixth multihomer

game in the majors and first since July 8, 2010, for Tampa Bay.

"They've pretty much given me the freedom to be myself and not

try to be the traditional leadoff hitter who just takes a bunch of

pitches and try to slap the ball," Crawford said. "I like to try

to put a good swing on the ball and not just hit the ball to the

shortstop and run. I mean, there's times for that, but for the most

part, I'm trying to hit the ball in the gap somewhere."

Game notes
Kershaw threw 117 pitches. The other leadoff homers Lohse has given up were by Jose Valentin (2001), Chuck Knoblauch (2002) and Jayson Werth (2011). ... Ramon Hernandez made his fourth start behind the plate for the Dodgers. His other three came in LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu's last three starts. ... Lohse reached the 2,000-inning mark for his 13-year career when he retired Kershaw on a grounder to shortstop to end the second. ... Lohse, coming off a 7-1 win last Monday at San Diego, hasn't won consecutive road starts since last April against Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. ... Dodgers LHP Ted Lilly makes his second start on Monday night in the opener of a three-game series with Colorado. He is 4-0 with a 2.15 ERA in four career starts against the Rockies at Dodger Stadium, including a two-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts on Aug. 19, 2010. ... Brewers RHP Yovani Gallardo will pitch the opener of a three-game set against Pittsburgh on Monday at Miller Park. He is 6-0 with a 2.18 ERA in his last seven starts overall against the Pirates.