Clayton Kershaw delivers vintage performance in Dodgers’ win over Giants
LOS ANGELES ―Whether it’s dusk, twilight or merely sunset, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw knows his Hall of Fame career is nearer to the western horizon than the east. That much is clear.
The final week of the 2023 regular season also finds Kershaw in a paradoxical place. He is at once the Dodgers’ most reliable starting pitcher and its least healthy. His five shutout innings against the San Francisco Giants in Saturday’s 7-0 win offered a reminder of his illustrious past, and allowed the announced crowd of 52,704 at Dodger Stadium to momentarily forget the shoulder injury that nearly torpedoed his season.
Kershaw (13-4) held the Giants to two hits and two walks while striking out five batters. The shutout was preserved when left fielder David Peralta made a diving catch on Austin Slater’s sinking fly ball to end the fifth inning, stranding runners at second and third base, on Kershaw’s 76th and final pitch.
The Giants (77-78), whose playoff hopes were reduced to the wildest of wild-card scenarios, did little on offense despite never seeing a pitch from Kershaw faster than 89.7 mph.
“I’d much rather just be good and be able to pitch the way I used to,” he said. “But I don’t really think of it like that too much. Whenever it’s your turn to pitch, just go out there and try to win, and hopefully you get the job done.”
Lately, Kershaw’s turn has fallen once a week. His next start will also fall on a Saturday next week in San Francisco. Kershaw joked that he is on a college starting pitcher’s schedule with six days’ rest between starts.
“It’s a different routine,” he said, “but for where I’m at right now it makes sense.”
And while his fastball elicited only one swing and miss all evening, Kershaw’s slider did most of the heavy lifting.
The 35-year-old left-hander allowed a double to Marco Luciano and walked Luis Matos to begin the fifth inning. Needing a strikeout, he got Tyler Fitzgerald to swing and miss at a slider on 1-and-2. He got Patrick Bailey to tap a slider to third baseman Max Muncy, a potential inning-ending double play thwarted when third base umpire Laz Diaz decided Luciano stayed within the baseline by running on the infield grass to avoid a tag.
Calmly, Kershaw came back to retire Slater on the sinking fly ball that found Peralta’s glove. The veteran pitcher raised both arms in the air, celebrating in lockstep with the crowd, before waving to his family in the stands from the dugout.
In seven starts since his August return from a shoulder injury, Kershaw has a 2.03 ERA across 31 innings. He has not pitched more than five innings in a start since June. Although his innings-eating abilities have been usurped by the lingering shoulder pain, Kershaw will still finish this season as the team leader in innings pitched ― 126 ⅓ and counting.
“I thought from the outset (Kershaw had) really good command and he and Austin (Barnes) worked really well together,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I thought the sequencing was great. He used all quadrants (of the strike zone). He used his curveball. Slider was good. There were some changeups in there. He just kept those guys off-balance all night. Really efficient. I couldn’t have asked for anything more from Clayton.”
In 58 career starts against the Giants, Kershaw is 26-15 with a 1.99 earned-run average. Saturday’s win was not his biggest ever against San Francisco, but it allowed the Dodgers to clinch a first-round bye into the National League Division Series.
At 95-59, the Dodgers cannot finish the season with a worse record than the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers (88-67). Since the Dodgers won the head-to-head series against Milwaukee, they own the tiebreaker if the two teams finish with the same record.
The Dodgers won’t know their Division Series opponent until the wild-card games are complete, but Roberts already has his Games 1 and 2 starters penciled in. Kershaw and Bobby Miller will start in some order, the manager said.
That game (Oct. 7 or 8) will be Kershaw’s next start at Dodger Stadium, if not his last. The Dodgers will play their final seven regular-season games away from home beginning Monday in Denver.
“I think it’s always special to get to pitch here,” Kershaw said. “Thankfully we’re in the playoffs. It’s a nice distraction so you don’t have to really think about next year, anything like that. Whenever it could be your last one you maybe take a second extra. I’m so far away from that decision I don’t have time to worry about it.”
Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and J.D. Martinez ― the Dodgers’ 1-through-4 hitters ― each had two hits. Martinez hit his 31st home run of the season and legged out a double immediately after fouling a ball off his ankle.
Betts’ two RBIs gave him 105 for the season, the most ever by a leadoff hitter in MLB history. Freeman hit his 57th double of the season, tied for 11th-most in a single season.
Joe Kelly, Michael Grove and Caleb Ferguson combined to throw four scoreless innings in relief of Kershaw, striking out six batters.