Clayton Kershaw puts on masterful performance as Dodgers rout Reds to avoid sweep

The Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw delivers a pitch in the first inning against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.The release was almost cathartic, the frustration of a brutal homestand filled with blown leads and late-inning losses and the tension of another tight game dissipating with every clutch two-out hit by the Dodgers in the eighth inning Wednesday.

First came the tack-on runs, a Chris Taylor run-scoring triple and an AJ Pollock RBI single that turned a two-run lead into a four-run cushion. Then came the “jug runs,” as manager Dave Roberts calls them, baseball-speak for “going for the jugular,” two-run singles by Matt Beaty and Mookie Betts.

By the time the inning was over,…