{"id":150517,"date":"2025-08-16T12:49:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T12:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/150517\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T12:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T12:49:13","slug":"the-legend-clayton-kershaw-is-legendary-again-for-dodgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/150517\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘legend’ Clayton Kershaw is legendary again for Dodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Even now, Clayton Kershaw<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After all these years, Clayton Kershaw<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When the Dodgers<\/a> are reeling and roiling and losing their grip on a long hot summer, who is the one player who can stop the fall and calm the nerves and, oh yeah, kick some San Diego Padre butt?<\/p>\n

Still, still, still, Clayton Kershaw.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s 37 with a battered 18-season body and a fastball the speed of a Zamboni and yet there he was Friday night, carrying an entire worried Dodger nation on his weary shoulders into the opener of a three-game series against the cocky rivals who had just stolen first place.<\/p>\n

Final score: Dodgers 3, Padres 2<\/a><\/p>\n

Final line: Six innings, two hits, one run.<\/p>\n

Final verdict: He\u2019s still All That.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the right guy on the mound tonight, I think we all know that,\u201d said manager Dave Roberts<\/a>, smiling for what seemed like the first time in a week. \u201cWhat he did for us tonight, not only just the compete, but the stuff … getting us through six innings was huge, setting us up for the rest of the series … Clayton set the tone … big, big outing by him.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a blast from the past, only it\u2019s been happening in the present, Kershaw behaving like the staff\u2019s second-best starter, improving his record to 7-2 while lowering his ERA to 3.01 and, as crazy as this once sounded, making an early case for inclusion in the postseason rotation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good night,\u201d Kershaw said.<\/p>\n

Understated as usual. For all this game meant, it was a great night.<\/p>\n

Since July 4 the Dodgers had been worse than even the Colorado Rockies, with a 12-21 record while losing 10 games in the standings to the Padres in a span of 40 days, surrendering first place just two days ago, and set to play the Padres six times in the next two weeks.<\/p>\n

They desperately needed somebody to stop the bleeding. And before the game, Roberts claimed that Kershaw was \u201cthe perfect guy\u201d to do it.<\/p>\n

Perfect prediction. Almost perfect performance.<\/p>\n

There was Kershaw, spinning and steering and surfing the ball past the Padre bats with apparent ease, his only mistake a hanging curve that Ram\u00f3n Laureano<\/a> hit 400 feet.<\/p>\n

There was Kershaw, deftly making plays from the mound, demonstrably pleading for every close strike call, proudly stalking from the mound into a dugout filled with hugs and high-fives.<\/p>\n

And there was Kershaw, after his maligned bullpen danced through danger and barely survived, admitting that maybe this game meant a little more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you play everyday, things can spiral pretty quick,\u201d he said. \u201cSo maybe just coming home, having an off day to reset, and playing good games … it just takes one to get going. Hopefully this was it tonight for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the game, Roberts acknowledged that the Dodgers just play harder, and with more urgency, when Kershaw is pitching.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a way of elevating people\u2019s focus and play,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw turns to walk back to the dugout after the Dodgers completed a double play against the Padres in the sixth inning Friday.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Sure enough, a team that had seemingly forgotten to do the little things did every little thing, from great defensive plays at the corners from Alex Freeland and Freddie Freeman to the eighth-inning sweeper from Blake Treinen<\/a> that fooled Manny Machado into stranding two runners with a popout.<\/p>\n

This is a team that devoutly follows Kershaw … when they\u2019re not sitting back and admiring him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s built for these big moments,\u201d said Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a>, whose seventh inning homer eventually proved to be the difference. \u201cHe is a legend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kershaw was at his best when the Dodgers\u2019 best was needed, and in doing so he brought sanity back to the National League West and old-fashioned hardball back to a series that had become cheap and unseemly.<\/p>\n

In these two teams\u2019 seven previous meetings this season, the Padres Fernando Tatis Jr. was hit three times, Shohei Ohtani<\/a> was hit twice, and Roberts and Padres manager Mike Shildt engaged in a brief shoving and shouting match.<\/p>\n

The stage was set for more bad blood<\/a>, but Kershaw, who entered with a career 23-11 record and 2.19 ERA against the Padres, quickly put an end to that. He retired the Padres on a three-up-three-down first inning and efficiently dominated them from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a game in August, obviously, it\u2019s not that huge a deal,\u201d Kershaw said. \u201cBut the way we were going, it felt like a big game for us and, thankful that we got a win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only possible controversy emerged when Kershaw was removed from the game after just 76 pitches, surprising fans who didn\u2019t have time to give him the proper standing ovation while leaving the game in the shaky hands of the bullpen.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Get used to it. The Dodgers are smartly going to protect the midseason Kershaw in hopes of maximizing the October Kershaw.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think we\u2019ve got to take care of him,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cFor Clayton to give us six strong innings of one-run baseball, he did his job, there was no reason to push him more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the game, Roberts was asked if his struggling team held a players-only meeting. He said that, no, the transparent results of the next week would be the equivalent of any meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like to be embarrassed, I don\u2019t think our players do, so this series I\u2019m expecting high intensity and high performance,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI think in itself, the schedule over the next week, will suffice in lieu of a meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an opener that pulled the two teams into a first-place tie, the early results were clear.<\/p>\n

High intensity? Check.<\/p>\n

High performance? Check.<\/p>\n

Clayton Kershaw? Still.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even now, Clayton Kershaw. After all these years, Clayton Kershaw. When the Dodgers are reeling and roiling and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":150518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,7480,2385,2442,44562,6803,1910,28445,2961,224,5337,88440,8037,34961,26804,3007,17823,88439,2452],"class_list":{"0":"post-150517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-clayton-kershaw","11":"tag-day","12":"tag-dodgers","13":"tag-first-place","14":"tag-first-time","15":"tag-game","16":"tag-kershaw","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-mound-tonight","21":"tag-padres","22":"tag-record","23":"tag-roberts","24":"tag-team","25":"tag-thing","26":"tag-three-game-series","27":"tag-week"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115038530325032162","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}