announced in September his plans to\u00a0retire<\/a>\u00a0after this season.<\/p>\nHe said at his locker Saturday night that he couldn\u2019t have asked for anything more. Kershaw spent his entire career with the Dodgers and won three World Series rings. He became one of the greatest pitchers of his generation and one of Los Angeles\u2019 most beloved athletes of the 21st century.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a sad feeling. It really isn\u2019t,\u201d Kershaw said. \u201cI mean, how cool is this? I will forever for the rest of my life be able to say we won Game 7 of the World Series in the last game I ever played. You can\u2019t script that. You can\u2019t write it up. Even if I was not throwing 88 (mph), I still would be done. It\u2019s just the perfect way to end it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clayton Kershaw lifts the Commissioner\u2019s Trophy after the Dodgers clinched the World Series. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
The three-time Cy Young Award winner made a clutch appearance out of the bullpen in the 12th inning of Game 3,\u00a0a 6-5 victory that stretched 18 tense innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t script that, either. I\u2019m thankful to get out there and get that last out,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s so cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his prime from 2010-15, Kershaw led the National League in ERA five times, in strikeouts three times and wins twice.<\/p>\n
He has already earned a place alongside Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Don Newcombe and Fernando Valenzuela among the greatest pitchers to wear Dodger Blue.<\/p>\n
Clayton Kershaw and Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers pose in the locker room after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays Getty Images<\/p>\n
Kershaw had one of the best pitching seasons ever in 2014, when he finished 21-3 with a 1.77 ERA and 233 strikeouts to win both the Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards in the NL.<\/p>\n
Kershaw built his reputation with a pitching style that relies on deception, movement and velocity changes. He has said he modeled his mechanics after his favorite childhood pitcher, Roger Clemens.<\/p>\n
The 11-time All-Star is tied with Zack Wheat and Bill Russell for the most years playing with the Dodgers. Kershaw also won World Series championships in 2020 and 2024.<\/p>\n
He has a career record of 222-96 and 15 shutouts, most among active major leaguers. He threw his only no-hitter in June 2014 against Colorado.<\/p>\n
Clayton Kershaw reacts with manager Dave Roberts after the Dodgers\u2019 World Series win. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
His 2.54 ERA is the lowest of any pitcher in the live-ball era since 1920, and his winning percentage tops all pitchers with at least 200 victories since 1900.<\/p>\n
Kershaw said he\u2019s been offered a job by Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe mentioned something where I can hang out,\u201d Kershaw said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what that looks like, but this is a special organization and they don\u2019t need me to win World Series \u2014 that\u2019s obvious. But if there\u2019s anything that I can do in the future to be a part of it, I hope that\u2019s the case.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clayton Kershaw ended his illustrious 18-year career unaware that he\u2019d just won the World Series again. At least…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":350178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2502,1266,62,1290,67,132,68,25454],"class_list":{"0":"post-350177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-world-series"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115479828753500379","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350177","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=350177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}