Column: Clayton Kershaw is completely efficient, but he isn’t completely Kershaw

Cheers were huge, but only after breaths were held.

There was the usual worship, but also an unfamiliar worry.

The pitcher with all the answers returned to the Dodger Stadium mound Monday night bearing the occasional unsettling question.

What happened on that curve in the dirt? Why is that slider not always hitting the corner? Goodness, did he actually just allow a run to score on that pitch to the backstop?

In six innings against the San Francisco Giants, Clayton Kershaw proved unequivocally that he is back. Well, pretty much.

In his third start since missing 2 1/2 months with a back injury, the best pitcher on the planet showed he is fully recovered and ready to lead the Dodgers into the postseason. OK, probably.

On a night when former sparring partners Yasiel Puig of the Dodgers and Madison Bumgarner of the Giants nearly caused another brawl with another childish staring and shouting match — grow up, both of you — the real story was one guy who is fighting through something entirely different.

During a stirring 2-1, ninth-inning comeback win over the reeling Giants — moving the Dodgers to the precipice of a fourth consecutive National League West title — an equally important comeback was still in process.

Kershaw was completely effective, but he wasn’t completely Kershaw.

Throwing a recovery-high 88 pitches over those six innings, Kershaw allowed the Giants just one unearned run on three hits with seven strikeouts and one walk. From a distance, it looked great. But watching it with Dodger Stadium fans on the uneasy edge of their seats, it occasionally felt awkward.

There were signs that the remnants of his herniated disk injury could be limiting his ability to overpower hitters with all of his pitches. The devastating slider wasn’t always there. The frustrating slow curve didn’t always finish in the right spot.

He has the same strength, wits and will. He just didn’t seem to have the same complete pitch arsenal, not yet anyway, and afterward, he acknowledged it.

In a postgame news conference, Kershaw said that compared with his last recovery start, when he allowed the New York Yankees one hit in five innings last week, this one didn’t totally measure up.

“My stuff was a lot better in New York than it was tonight,” he said. “But getting my pitch count back up and making sure my body bounces back, it’s been feeling good, all positives.”

When asked if he was close to feeling like himself, he couldn’t really answer.

“Tough question, it depends on the day,” he said. “In New York I felt really good, physically, stuff-wise, everything coming out the way I wanted it to come out. Today it wasn’t like that. Arm feels good, back is fine, maybe it’s one of those days you don’t have your good stuff.”

Kershaw will probably make two more starts before the end of the regular season, and maybe he will find it then. If not, he will be battling his way into Oct. 9 in Washington for the division opener, and won’t that be interesting?

Kershaw at 85% is better than 99% of baseball’s pitchers, so the Dodgers can still dominate with him. But it will be different this autumn. It will be trickier. They will have to be more careful with his pitch count. They may have to be more adamant when fighting to remove him from games.

Dave Roberts, the Dodgers’ manager, acknowledged that his ace is still trying to figure things out, but said he’s pleased with the progress.

“Yeah, this is his third start after 2 1/2 months of being off, so, yeah ... for him to go six and give up one un- earned run and still be trying to figure things out, I like where he’s headed,” said Roberts.

Not that Kershaw needs a strong postseason microscope. He’ll already be under the most pressure of any pitcher in this postseason, thanks to numbers known by all Dodgers fans.

In the 2013 playoffs, Kershaw allowed seven runs in the final NL Championship Series game against St. Louis. In the 2014 postseason, he had two losses in two starts against the Cardinals and a 7.82 earned-run average in the division series.

Kershaw finally changed the narrative in last autumn’s division series with a 2.63 ERA in two starts against the New York Mets. But he still won only one of those starts, and the Dodgers still lost in the first round again, and he still is seeking that first championship moment while now battling through an injury recovery that probably won’t completely occur until this winter.

He’s simply not going to be completely the same pitcher right now, and the Dodgers’ future hinges on his ability to work with what he has, which he did fairly well Monday until the third inning.

With two outs, he stumbled off the mound trying to grab a grounder by Eduardo Nunez. Two pitches later, sore-elbowed catcher Yasmani Grandal threw a ball into center field to allow the stealing Nunez to take third. Moments later, facing Angel Pagan, Kershaw threw a slow curve into the dirt that bounced past Grandal and allowed Nunez to score on a rare wild pitch.

“I’ve got to do a better job on that pitch to Pagan, that’s pretty impossible to block,” he said. “I left a slider hanging on a pitch before that, I wanted to make sure I got it down, I definitely did that, it wasn’t very close.”

How much have things changed for him these days? The Dodgers enforcer completely missed the bench-clearing incident with Puig and Bumgarner in the seventh inning, as he was in the clubhouse doing his postgame work.

“The first one I’ve never run out there,” he said, smiling. “I didn’t have time to get my clothes back on.”

The uniform will be on his back his next month, as will the Dodgers’ championship hopes.

Their ace is back. Or close enough. They hope.

bill.plaschke@latimes.com

Twitter: @BillPlaschke