Clayton Kershaw made his first start of the season for the Dodgers on Sunday. This shortened season, shortened still further for him due to back discomfort, he improved as soon as he got on the mound. Kershaw pitched 5.2 scoreless innings against the D-backs with six strikeouts, zero walks and 57 strikes of a total of 81 pitches. And the Dodgers looked like the Dodgers again. The southpaw is a special case, the type of players who, for whatever reason, sometimes just forget how great they are and how long they have maintained that level.
There is a good debate surrounding who is the best starting pitcher of his generation: Kershaw, Justin Verlander or Max Scherzer. Verlander arrived first. Kershaw and Scherzer debuted in the majors in the same season (20008), but Kershaw is the youngest of the three. Perhaps one of the most impressive things associated with Kershaw’s extraordinary career is that he is still only 32 years old. He is only three months older than Jacob deGrom.
Kershaw has been the Sandy Koufax of his generation for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He’s been a star for the Dodgers longer than Koufax, but he’s no bigger. No one would dare to say that, from Brooklyn to downtown Los Angeles, where in the last six years of his career, Koufax appeared to be the greatest starter of all time. But with Kershaw entering his 13th season, which began with his outing against the D-backs, it’s a good time to stop and take a good look at how much he has mattered to the Dodgers. And to the determinant that continues to be.
When asked the other day what it felt like to be back on the ridge, Kershaw responded by simply saying “it was a great thing.”
He is great. In Kershaw’s first year in the majors, the year he turned 20, he was 5-5 with a 4.26 ERA in 21 starts. Last year, he was 16-5 with 3.03. In between those two seasons, he never had a year with an ERA of 3.00 or worse. As deGrom is coming off two National League Cy Young Awards – the first with a 1.70 ERA and the second with 2.43 – it’s worth remembering that Kershaw’s lifetime ERA is 2.44. And it is also appropriate to mention that when he won the Cy Young successively in 2013 and 2014 (the second complemented with the Most Valuable Player award) his ERA were 1.83 and 1.77, respectively, and in total his record. from 37-12. (His first Cy Young was won in 2011).
Do you know what those were? Seasons like Koufax in Los Angeles. The only thing Kershaw hasn’t done yet is give the Dodgers a World Series title, something Koufax did twice in the 1960s, and also something that Verlander accomplished with the Astros in 2017 and Scherzer at the Nationals. last season. It’s the one element where Kershaw’s track record is complicated, especially since many in the Dodgers now believe that he – and the team – had the 2017 World Series stolen from them.
The game the Dodgers will never forget was Game 5 of the 2017 World Series. They think the Astros knew what pitches Kershaw would throw on that night he couldn’t maintain a four-run lead, something he practically always had and has done every time he climbs the mound. Houston ultimately won that game 13-12 at Minute Maid Park, and the October Classic took a turn in its favor. The following year, against the Red Sox, Kershaw was 0-2 and the Red Sox were crowned champions in five games of the Fall Classic. Last year, the left-hander allowed back-to-back home runs by Anthony Rendón and Juan José Soto when he came in as a reliever in Game 5 of the National League Division Series against the Nationals.
In this sports world obsessed with champion rings, Kershaw still doesn’t have one. Verlander is 14-11 in the career postseason, while Scherzer was 4-5 before going 3-0 last October and forever changing his story in October. Kershaw is 9-11 in the career postseason with a 4.43 ERA.
That doesn’t change what he’s done in his career, which is 170-74 with 2,470 strikeouts in 2,280 innings. It doesn’t erase the three Cy Young Awards, the five cash titles, the National League MVP award, or the no-hitter game he pitched in 2014, among so many other things. If you saw him start Sunday against the D-backs with all those scoreless innings he threw, it could have been any other year for Clayton Kershaw. He’s still a baseball giant.
I asked Vin Scully on Monday if people really appreciate Kershaw’s greatness.
“I think they love him and value him,” Scully said, “but Sandy Koufax’s shadow is too big.”
I asked Dave Roberts, the Dodgers manager, the same question.
“Really, I’m not sure,” Roberts said. “I hope they do, because he is a pitcher and a person, one of those who appear once a generation.”
And he’s still a Dodger. He probably will be for life, just like Koufax. Verlander changed teams. Also Scherzer. Kershaw is right where he started, at Dodger Stadium, pitching every five days when he’s healthy. Much has changed. But not him. (GG) (Taken MLB in Spanish)