TORONTO – Clayton Kershaw ended his storied career as a World Series champion. And he might have been the last guy to find out.
Kershaw, the greatest left-handed pitcher of his generation, spent many of his 18 years with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a tortured soul in October, often asked to shoulder too much or surrounded by a team just imperfect enough to sully his handiwork.
He ended it as a rank-and-file guy on the most potent pitching staff he’s ever been a part of, which is why he was warming up in the bullpen in the bottom of the 11th inning, the Dodgers two outs away from a championship, and their $325 million man, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, trying to keep the Toronto Blue Jays at bay.
Kershaw might have been responsible for the next batter, Daulton Varsho, but in the fog of extra-inning war, chaos reigned. Runners were at the corners. The Dodgers were nursing a 5-4 lead.
Kershaw’s only task at that moment was heeding the instructions of bullpen coach Josh Bardo. So he kept throwing, kept getting loose in that right field bullpen far beyond the playing surface, a couple fences blocking his view, the 44,713 partisans at Rogers Centre ready to erupt at a game-tying – perhaps World Series-winning – development.
And so when Alejandro Kirk rolled a gentle ground ball to shortstop Mookie Betts, who stepped on second and tossed to first for the final out of the season, Kershaw was oblivious.
“Bardo looked at me,” he says, “and said, ‘We just won the World Series!’
“And I said, ‘Are you sure?’”
Believe it.
A pitcher who endured 13 playoff runs in his 18 seasons, almost all of them as the Dodgers’ ace and expected Game 1 starter, was simply along for the ride on this one. Yet he went out healthy, and happy, and did his job to its fullest – even if that job was retiring just one batter in this World Series.
But oh, what a spot: Manager Dave Roberts called upon Kershaw in the top of the 12th inning of World Series Game 3. The bases were loaded, the score tied 5-5 and No. 2 batter Nathan Lukes at the plate for Toronto.
Kershaw threw him eight pitches, six of them sliders, the final tool in his 37-year-old kit he trusts. On the eighth, Lukes rolled a full-count slider over to second base, where Tommy Edman retired him for the final out.
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It was just one out, and Kershaw would never climb the mound again. But when the Dodgers won the game in 18 innings, and the Series in seven games, well, Kershaw could feel nothing but gratitude at being simply a cog rather than the engine in this title pursuit.
“I’m thankful I got to go back out there and get that last out. Have it be at Dodger Stadium. Have it be a big out. That’s just so cool,” says Kershaw. “I have to give Doc a lot of thanks. To trust me to do that.
“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs so for him to keep trusting me and get me in that spot.”
Now, scouting reports and arm care will be the last of his worries. Kershaw and his wife are expecting their fifth child. The lefty with a career 223-96 record and 2.53 ERA is going into full Dad Mode.
Dodgers president Andrew Friedman has left open the possibility of a front office job, probably on the cushy side, but that can wait for another time.
In July 2031, Kershaw will almost certainly be inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame. And that plaque will say, “three-time World Series champion.”
Even if it took him a minute to realize that third ring would be on its way.
“It’s not a sad feeling. It really isn’t,” says Kershaw. “I will, forever, for the rest of my life, get to say, we won Game 7 of the World Series the last game I played. You can’t script it, you can’t write it up.
“Even if I was not throwing 88, I’d still be done. It’s just the perfect way to end it.”