"Where others watching Clayton Kershaw pitch Monday night might have seen a gem, the left-hander saw room for improvement.

"Truthfully, it was a battle," Kershaw said. "I was behind a lot of hitters."

It's probably safe to say Kershaw is in the minority after pitching 63 shutout innings to lead the Dodgers to a 6-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants in front of a sellout crowd of 40,870 at AT&T Park.

"Exactly what we needed," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

So was the Dodgers sputtering offense breaking through for 11 hits.

But shortstop Rafael Furcal suffering a broken left thumb diving into third in the fifth inning was exactly what the Dodgers didn't need.

Furcal said he wasn't sure how long he'd be out if he would undergo surgery.

He said he would have the injury evaluated by a doctor in Los Angeles later this week.

"It hurts really bad," he said. "It's broken."

Kershaw (2-1) struck out seven batters and six hits and two walks as he easily outdueled Madison Bumgarner (0-2) in a matchup that featured two of the game's best young left-handed pitchers.

Going into Monday, Bumgarner and Kershaw's 3.05 and 3.14 ERAs ranked No. 1 and No. 2 among all active pitchers younger than 24.

Kershaw continued his mastery of the Giants. Going into Monday, he was 2-1 with a 1.23 ERA in seven outings against the Giants, and 1-1 with a 1.06 ERA in San Francisco."