Dodgers’ Matt Treanor knows Clayton Kershaw is special

Reporting from Goodyear, Ariz. -- Matt Treanor is 36 years old and entering his ninth season as a major league catcher.

But Treanor has few words of advice for Clayton Kershaw, who turned 24 on Monday and remains the youngest member of the Dodgers’ rotation.

In the month he has spent with the Dodgers, Treanor has noticed Kershaw’s tendency to make on-field adjustments on his own.

“He doesn’t need anyone out there telling him what to do, so I try to limit how much I try to get him to do something,” Treanor said.

Treanor was behind the plate Monday when Kershaw pitched 5 1/3 innings in the Dodgers’ 4-3 defeat to the Cleveland Indians. In what was his longest appearance of the exhibition season, Kershaw held the Indians to a run and three hits and struck out five. The run was the first he had given up this spring.

Treanor, who signed with the Dodgers over the winter, described catching Kershaw as a unique experience.

“As far as his stuff is concerned, I don’t think I’ve caught anybody like him,” Treanor said. “He’s got that pause, he mixes up his moves, he fields his position really well. You’d think he’s been around longer.”

Treanor was particularly impressed with how Kershaw settled down after a two-hit, one-walk first inning that produced the Indians’ only run against him.

Kershaw said that his fastball command failed him in the early innings but that he is pleased with his form considering the time of the year. He figures to pitch twice more before his opening-day assignment on April 5 in San Diego.

Kershaw hit a home run in an exhibition on his 21st birthday in 2009 but settled for a couple of sacrifice bunts Monday.

“I had to bunt, dadgummit,” Kershaw said playfully. “It’s OK, though. At least I got the bunts down.”

Hairston not worried

Veteran utilityman Jerry Hairston Jr. is slated to back up Dee Gordon but has committed four errors in 13 innings at shortstop this spring. He made two throwing errors Monday.

Hairston, who is entering his 15th major league season, isn’t concerned.

“This is spring training,” he said. “You’re going to make some mistakes. If we were always sharp, we wouldn’t have spring training.”

Hairston, who turns 36 this month, played only two games at shortstop last season, which he split between the Washington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers.

The last time he spent a significant time at the position was in 2010 when he played 62 games there for the San Diego Padres. He had a fielding percentage of .976 as a shortstop that season, which was better than the league average.

“My track record speaks for itself,” said Hairston, who signed a two-year, $6-million contract with the Dodgers over the winter.

Pointing to Hairston’s footwork, Manager Don Mattingly said he wasn’t concerned — yet.

“It’s something that we’ll pay attention to,” Mattingly said.

Kemp, Ethier to travel for charity

When the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies made their spring-training homes in Tucson, few of the Dodgers’ regular players took the two-hour bus ride from Phoenix to face them.

But Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and several other of the Dodgers’ key players will be in Tucson on Friday to take on the Chicago White Sox in a game to raise money for the Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation. The daughter of Dodgers scout John Green, Christina-Taylor Green was killed in the 2011 shooting that wounded then U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The foundation funds charitable and educational projects.

Also scheduled to take part in the game are Gordon, Juan Rivera, Mark Ellis, A.J. Ellis, Tony Gwynn Jr. and Hairston.

Tickets can be purchased at tucsonpadres.com.

The Dodgers will also send a split squad to Surprise, Ariz., to face the Kansas City Royals on Friday.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com

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