CINCINNATI — Clayton Kershaw emerged from the home clubhouse at Great American Ballpark on Tuesday night showered, scrubbed and with a smile on his face. [ Play a Daily Fantasy contest for cash today!l ] "It was fun until I started giving up runs," the Los Angeles Dodgers ace said. Pitch in enough of these Midsummer Classics and you're bound to get tagged for a few runs. The American League finally caught up with Kershaw during his fifth straight appearance, tagging him for two runs, three hits and a walk in the top of the fifth inning. The outing was the worst All-Star appearance of his career — he came into Tuesday's with two hits and a walk over four scoreless All-Star innings — and left him credited with the loss as the National League fell 6-3. Afterward, a reporter threw him a life preserver by asking if his routine was thrown off by pitching middle relief instead of starting. Kershaw threw it right back. "I felt fine," he said. "I wasn't really worried [about where I was coming in]. I was just trying to get people out."