LOS ANGELES -- Clayton Kershaw and batterymate A.J. Ellis were in agreement for nine innings, especially on one specific point: Losing the game would be much worse than seeing the Los Angeles Dodgers ace lose his scoreless innings streak. Chase Headley snapped Kershaws streak at 41 innings with a tying homer in the sixth, but the two-time Cy Young Award winner finished with a three-hitter and 11 strikeouts in a 2-1 victory Thursday night over the San Diego Padres. Kershaw (11-2) won his eighth straight start and came within 18 innings of the major league record set by Dodgers right-hander Orel Hershiser, who threw 59 consecutive shutout innings in 1988. "I was barely thinking about the streak at all, and I know he wasnt," Ellis said. "I mean, we werent close to anything that was worth starting to get excited about. We were more disappointed that the game was tied. So we had to bear down, keep the game where it was and hope we could scratch out another run." Headleys seventh homer halted the longest scoreless streak in the majors since Brandon Webb went 42 innings for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2007. Kershaws run tied Luis Tiant for the fifth-longest in the expansion era (since 1961). "It was over the fence, so it was a mistake -- and it tied the game," Kershaw said. "When its a game like that, one mistake can kill you. Fortunately for me, that one mistake didnt." The 26-year-old lefty became the third pitcher in the last 100 years to win eight straight starts in one season while striking out at least seven batters in each one. The others were Sandy Koufax (1966) and Juan Marichal (1967). "It doesnt get more competitive than him," Ellis said. "Hes every adjective you could think of. Hes unique, special, just amazing out there. Theres just a relentless will to win. He imposes his will on the opposing team." Kershaw faced the Padres for the first time this season. Last year, he was 1-3 with a 3.33 ERA in four starts against them. "He was tough all night," Headley said. "He threw me a slider that didnt have a whole lot on it. It stayed out over the plate and I was able to put a good swing on it. But he was tremendous again. He showed why hes one of the best pitchers in the game. It seems like hes throwing his breaking pitches more. Last year was more fastball and slider." Kershaw missed five weeks because of a strained muscle in his upper back following his opening-day victory against the Diamondbacks in Australia. But he has a 1.98 ERA in 14 starts, giving him his most wins and lowest ERA before the All-Star break in his seven-year career. "I think theres some level of consistency with my pitches," he said. "Im just repeating my delivery and I know where the balls going." Headed to his fourth All-Star game in a row, Kershaw seems a strong choice to start the Midsummer Classic on regular rest Tuesday night in Minnesota. Kershaw earned his 14th complete game in 196 career starts, helping the defending NL West champions increase their division lead to one game over San Francisco in the opener of a four-game series that will take them into the break. Vying for his fourth consecutive major league ERA title, Kershaw highlighted his astounding streak with a no-hitter June 18 against Colorado. He limited the Rockies to two hits over eight innings in the rematch last Friday at Coors Field. If Kershaw had enough innings to qualify for the ERA race, hed be second in the majors behind Adam Wainwrights 1.79 mark for St. Louis. During his streak, Kershaw allowed 17 hits, struck out 52 batters, walked six and stranded 23 runners -- four at third base. He also retired the leadoff hitter in 36 of those innings. The previous run against Kershaw came on an RBI double by Arizonas Aaron Hill in the third inning of Kershaws 4-3 win June 13 at Dodger Stadium. His next outing was the no-hitter. Odrisamer Despaigne (2-1) allowed two runs, seven hits and no walks over seven innings for the Padres. He struck out seven in his fourth big league start. The 27-year-old right-hander got his first chance to face Cuban countryman Yasiel Puig in the majors and held him to one hit in four at-bats -- a line-drive double that caromed off Despaignes left leg and into left field in the fourth. Scott Van Slyke hit a two-out single that drove in Puig from third. Adrian Gonzalez knocked in the go-ahead run with sacrifice fly in the sixth after Headley hit his seventh homer. The Padres, who have lost five of six following a season-best, five-game winning streak, got two runners as far as second base. NOTES: Hershiser pitched scoreless ball over the final six regular-season starts of his only Cy Young season. He broke the previous big league mark of 58 consecutive scoreless innings, set in 1968 by another former Dodger -- Hall of Famer Don Drysdale. ... The only pitchers since 1961 with longer scoreless streaks than Kershaw were Bob Gibson (47) and Webb. Drysdale, Gibson and Tiant all had their streaks in 1968, the so-called "Year of the Pitcher." Major League Baseball lowered the mound from 15 inches to 10 the following season. ... Kershaw waved a TV cameraman from the Dodgers flagship network, Time Warner Cable, away from the mound and off the diamond so he wouldnt encroach on his first-inning warmups. Time Warners contract with the club is estimated to be worth $7 billion over the next two decades. ... Hershiser was 30 when he had his streak, and Drysdale was 32. ... Kershaw is 9-1 with a 0.97 ERA in 10 starts since May 17, when he gave up seven runs over 1 2-3 innings in an 18-7 loss at Arizona. Wholesale Jerseys . Pearce had a career-high four hits and drove in two runs, and Wei-Yin Chen shut down Texas again as the Orioles completed a four-game sweep of the Rangers with a 5-2 victory on Thursday night. Soccer Jerseys . -- Oakland Athletics starting pitchers Jarrod Parker and A. https://www.cheapjerseysjustwholesale.com/. The Calgary skip fell 10-8 to Swedens Oskar Eriksson in semifinal action Saturday and will face Switzerlands Peter de Cruz for the bronze medal (Saturday at 10pm et/7pm pt on TSN2). MLB Jerseys . Starters, when they struggle, have to live with it for five days. For Sergio Santos and Steve Delabar, two of the three men who authored one of the ugliest pitched innings in Blue Jays franchise history on Thursday night, the bounce-back chance came right away. Adidas Jerseys . In mens doubles, Vancouvers Vasek Pospisil and American Jack Sock reached the quarter-finals with a 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3), 6-4 win over Croatian Mate Pavic and Andre Sa of Brazil.BAIE-COMEAU, Que. -- Philippe Cadorette stopped 22 shots as the Baie-Comeau Drakkar extended their win streak to six games by defeating the Saint John Sea Dogs 2-1 on Friday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League action. Gabryel Paquin-Boudreau scored the eventual winner 3:52 into the second period while on the power play for the Drakkar (11-4-2) and Alec Jon Banville opened the games scoring in the first period. Joey Richard scored the lone goal for the Sea Dogs (5-10-1), who are winless in their last seven outings. Saint Johns Sebastien Auger turned away 30-of-32 shots in defeat. Baie-Comeau went 1 for 4 on the power play while the Sea Dogs failed to score on four chances with the man advantage. --- MOOSEHEADS 5 TITAN 2 BATHURST, N.B. -- Timo Meier scored twice as Halifax downed Acadie-Bathurst. Austyn Hardy, Brent Andrews and MacKenzie Weegar also scored for the Mooseheads (11-7-0) while Jonathan Drouin had three assists. Alexandros Soumakis and Raphael Lafontaine scored for the Titan (6-8-2). Halifaxs Zachary Fucale made 15 stops for the win while Acadie-Bathursts Jacob Brennan turned away 39 shots in defeat. --- SAGUENEENS 5 SCREAMING EAGLES 4 CHICOUTIMI, QUE. -- The Sagueneens scored four times in the first period en route to defeating Cape Breton. Thomas Gobeil scored twice in the opening 20 minutes for Chicoutimi (9-8-0) while Laurent Dauphin and Sebastien Sylvestre also had first-period goals. Samuel Roussy scored the eventual winner in the second period. Charles-Eric Legare had a goal and an assist for the Screaming Eagles (7-7-2) and Jason Bell, Cameron Darcy and William Carriere scored the others. Domenic Graham made 33 saves for the Sagueneens. Alex Bureau allowed four goals on nine shots for Cape Breton before giving way to Chase Marchand, who picked up the loss despite stopping 14-of-15 shots in 41 minutes of relief.dddddddddddd --- ARMADA 7 PHOENIX 2 BOISBRIAND, QUE. -- Nikita Jevpalovs had two goals and an assist and Aaron Hoyles scored once and set up three more as Blainville-Boisbriand hammered Shebrooke. Danick Martel also scored twice for the Armada (12-1-1) while Christopher Clapperton had a goal and an assist. Daniel Audette and Jean-Francois Plante supplied the scoring for the Phoenix (4-11-2). Blainville-Boisbriands Guillaume Decelles made 20 saves for the victory. Sherbrookes Gabriel Parent stopped 17-of-24 shots in a losing cause. --- VOLTIGUEURS 5 TIGRES 3 DRUMMONDVILLE, QUE. -- Voltigeurs scoring leader Christophe Lalancette had a goal and an assist as his club handed Victoriaville its third straight defeat. Sergei Boikov and Georgs Golovkovs also had a goal and an assist apiece for Drummondville (8-6-1) while Jeremy Auger and Joey Ratelle added single goals. Angelo Miceli had two goals for the Tigres (8-5-1) and Felix-Antoine Savage scored once. Louis-Philip Guindon made 25 saves for the Voltigeurs as Victoriavilles Brandon Whitney stopped 31 shots in defeat. --- HUSKIES 4 FOREURS 2 ROUYN-NORANDA, QUE. -- Dillon Fournier had a pair of goals as the Huskies doubled up Val-dOr. Francis Perron scored once and set up two more for Rouyn-Noranda (9-5-2) while Liam OBrien had the other. The Foreurs (9-7-0) got goals from Guillaume Gelinas and Nikolas Aube-Kubel. Alexandre Belanger made 34 saves for the Huskies while Val-dOrs Francois Tremblay stopped 26 shots in a losing cause. ' ' '