In a duel of two future Baseball Hall of Famers, Clayton Kershaw had more support from his teammates than Max Scherzer and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1 on Friday night.

Toronto came into Dodger Stadium as the hottest team in the majors with a 68-48 record and a total of 45 runs scored in their previous three games. But the Blue Jays couldn't capitalize on their early opportunities against Kershaw in a night of living legends on the mound.

Both Kershaw and Scherzer are three-time Cy Young Award winners and both have struck out more than 3,000 batters in their careers, guaranteeing them a place in Cooperstown in a few years. They had faced each other several times, including one in 2008 when they were rookies (6,179 days ago).

Kobe Bryant Night at Dodger Stadium

With Vanessa Bryant and her daughters in attendance on a night when the Dodgers gave their fans a Kobe Bryant bobblehead, Clayton Kershaw (6-2) pitched 6 innings, allowing 7 hits, 1 run he gave up in the second inning, 4 strikeouts and 1 walk. Scherzer (2-2) also pitched 6 innings with 6 hits, 2 runs, 5 strikeouts and 3 walks.

Toronto was leading 1-0, but in the fifth inning Shohei Ohtani doubled with two outs and Mookie Betts immediately came in to hit a walk-off home run. Betts drove in three runs in the game and made a spectacular diving catch at shortstop to start one of three double plays for Los Angeles.

The Dodgers broke away in the seventh inning with three runs, taking advantage of the Blue Jays' infield being unable to execute well on a ground ball with runners on the corners and no outs, scoring Alex Freeland from third on a nice headfirst slide.

Three Dodgers relievers combined for the final three innings as the team improved to 67-49 on the season. Since San Diego lost its game against Boston (10-2), LA now has a 3-game lead in the Western Division.