LOS ANGELES, Calif. – In year 17 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Clayton Kershaw will essentially play an abbreviated 60-game season similar to the 2020 COVID year. Excluding his seven-year stretch from 2011 to 2017, when he was the best pitcher in baseball, 2020 was Kershaw’s best season as a pro.
He produced at a Cy Young level during the regular season (6-2, 2.16 ERA) and put together the greatest postseason run of his career (4-1, 2.93 ERA) on his way to a World Series championship.
His age (37) brings different challenges, including the fact he is further removed from his prime and is trying to return from one of the more difficult pitching injuries to recover from.
“The shoulder is certainly difficult. I think as a competitor, you want to be great and essentially perfect every time out. I just don’t think that is a realistic expectation,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “This is a tougher injury, and he has worked hard to get back to this point.”
In his first two starts of 2024, Kershaw was up and down. He looked great in his first appearance, showing flashes of his former self, but then looked like a shell of himself in his second when he failed to record a strikeout for the first time in his career.
“I don’t think that it is pivotal, but I think in Clayton’s mind it probably is pivotal,” Roberts said of Kershaw’s performance heading into his third appearance.
Kershaw delivered in his third start against the Phillies, who the Dodgers trail for the best record in the National League. He nearly got through five innings unscathed but gave up a Kyle Schwarber RBI single with two outs and two strikes in the fifth before being removed.
“I felt pretty good overall. I just made some dumb mistakes; a couple of guys got on base down 0-2, which shouldn’t happen, but overall, it is a good step in the right direction. Now I just have to figure out how to maintain my pitch count,” said Kershaw.
Roberts thinks five is a good number of games before he can better gauge where Kershaw is at. He wants to see what the future Hall of Fame pitcher looks like once he has built up some innings.
“Where we are in the calendar, I think that it is completely fair to say five starts or something like that,” said Roberts. “He certainly would have been through some stress and blocks of innings in 2024, then you get a better baseline.”
If he can put together a couple more quality starts in a row, it is safe to say Kershaw will be good enough to contribute this postseason if healthy. His workload will be down, and he probably would not be asked to start more than one game per series.
Benjamin Verbrugge is a reporter for News4usonline who studied journalism at CSU Dominguez Hills. “Sports have brought me much joy throughout my life, and I want to give a little back to something that has meant so much to me.” Email Benjamin at benverbrugge8@gmail.com.