ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
ANAHEIM, Calif. — It was late, the score was tied, the Angels were threatening and the Dodgers — losers of three straight and 18 of their previous 30, uncommonly hampered by a shorthanded rotation and an unreliable bullpen — needed their enduring ace to bail them out again. Clayton Kershaw centered his thoughts on a simple message.
Next pitch. Next pitch. Next pitch.
Kershaw has built a Hall of Fame career, a legacy, out of ignoring context and channeling his energy on the task directly in front of him. Out of focusing solely on “next pitch,” whatever that represents at a given time, again and again. On this Tuesday night, in the seventh inning of a scoreless game from Angel Stadium, he stacked enough of those pitches together to escape a two-on, none-out jam, leading his Dodgers to another much-needed victory and leaving his teammates in awe once more.
“He just continues to do it year in and year out,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “It’s absolutely incredible. And when we needed him the most, he did it again. He’s been doing that for the Los Angeles Dodgers since 2008, and we needed him 15 years later to do it again.”
The Dodgers, perhaps, have never needed Kershaw more. A franchise that boasted MLB’s lowest ERA each of the past four years — and provided three of the seven best adjusted-ERA seasons in baseball history during that stretch — possess a 4.50 ERA despite allowing only two runs over the last three games, the highest in the Dodgers’ 66-year history in Los Angeles. Their bullpen has a higher ERA than all but three last-place teams; the rotation is without Walker Buehler, Julio Urias, Dustin May and Noah Syndergaard, the latter of whom has pitched to a 7.16 ERA in 55⅓ innings.
Key high-leverage relievers have struggled and developing starting-pitching prospects have been counted on more heavily than expected. Kershaw has acted as one of few constants, making every start while trending toward his 10th All-Star Game.
“He’s the only one standing from Opening Day,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, referencing a rotation that has seen four-fifths of its initial members land on the injured list. “For him to obviously realize that but accept the responsibility, but not add pressure to himself — it’s a skill that’s certainly been tested and learned. The way he goes about things, man, he’s so consistent. I just can’t imagine where we’d be without him.”
Kershaw’s seven scoreless innings against the Angels dropped his ERA to 2.72, a mark topped by only six qualified pitchers. It represented the sixth time he had recorded 21 outs this season. The rest of the Dodgers’ staff has combined for only three such outings. He’s 35, midway through his 16th season with a franchise that has turned over multiple times since he started, and yet he’s anchoring a staff that is barely hanging on around him.
“This is what we’re supposed to do,” Kershaw said. “This is what I get paid to do is to pitch, and to pitch every fifth day or sixth day or whatever it is. Those years in the past I feel like are aberrations. This is what it’s supposed to look like is to be healthy and pitch.”
It has been eight years since Kershaw made at least 30 starts and accumulated at least 180 innings in a regular season. In the time since, from 2016 to 2022, he made 10 trips to the IL, half of them related to his back, and slowly realized changes were necessary. To persist, one of the most famously intense, routine-oriented pitchers in recent memory needed to alter and reduce his workload between starts. It wasn’t easy.
“I’m not one who sits passively well,” Kershaw said. “I’m not one that’s just like, ‘Go take an off-day.’ I’m not good at that.”
Over these past couple of years, though, Kershaw has begun to throw fewer pitches in his bullpen sessions and throw less weight around in his workouts. Under the guidance of the Dodgers’ training staff, he has also focused on creating more range of motion with his hips to take pressure off his troublesome back. Kershaw said his hips are “moving better than they have in a long time.”
“When you land you have to be able to hold the load in your leg, and when you push off you have to be able to push off well,” he explained. “And if you don’t do either of those things well, it creeps up to your back. Being able to accept the load to the ground, being able to push off well, and then being able to reset it in-between starts, being able to reinforce it with your workouts — all those things I probably was stubborn, like, ‘I’m not going to change anything.’ And then over time, as you get hurt more, you start listening more.”
Kershaw’s fastball is averaging 91.2 mph, his highest since 2017 if you ignore the COVID-19-shortened season of 2020. But the increase is nonetheless marginal. At a time when triple-digit radar-gun readings are commonplace, Kershaw excels by mastering the basics, such as getting ahead in counts (his 68.8% first-pitch strike percentage ranks fifth this season), commanding glove side (opposing right-handed hitters are slashing just .236/.281/.398 against him) and tunneling his slider and curveball perfectly with his fastball (he has recorded a major league-leading 83 strikeouts on breaking balls).
Kershaw established himself as the dominant pitcher of his era from 2011 to ’19, during which he won three Cy Young Awards and an MVP and accumulated 54.7 FanGraphs wins above replacement, more than anybody not named Mike Trout. His demise since has been greatly exaggerated. Among pitchers who have logged at least 350 innings since 2020, Kershaw ranks third in ERA (2.75), first in WHIP (0.99) and first in strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.95). In short: When he steps onto the mound, he remains one of the best in the world.
The prevailing question is: When will he step off it for good?
Kershaw has signed back-to-back one-year contracts and is committed to going year-to-year for what remains of his career. He hates the attention that comes with it but has found it necessary to reassess after every season and weigh the opinions of his wife and his children. The 2024 season, therefore, is not promised, no matter what his numbers look like by the end of 2023. And as soon as his production begins to slip, Kershaw is adamant that he’ll walk away.
The Seattle Mariners got off to a strong start in Game 2 of the American Champions League Series on Monday courtesy of Julio Rodriguez.
The center fielder smashed an 84 mph splitter off Trey Yesavage for a three-run homer in the top of the first inning. The Toronto Blue Jays right-hander had never allowed an extra-base hit on the splitter before, according to ESPN Research.
It marked Rodriguez’s second home run of the postseason as Seattle looks to take a 2-0 lead in the series.
The blast was Yesavage’s first career home run allowed in his fifth career start (regular season and playoffs). Entering Monday, he had allowed only two extra-base hits in 19⅓ innings pitched.
Seattle trailed 1-0 in the first inning in Game 1 before bouncing back to win 3-1 on Sunday. The series shifts to Seattle on Wednesday.
Mike Shildt is retiring as San Diego Padres manager with two years remaining on his contract, saying “the grind of the baseball season has taken a severe toll on me mentally, physically and emotionally.”
The 57-year-old Shildt on Saturday informed the team he would retire, nine days after the Padres were eliminated by the Chicago Cubs in a tense three-game wild-card series. He said he made the decision on his own accord.
Shildt led the Padres to the postseason in each of the two seasons he managed the franchise. The club confirmed Shildt’s decision Monday.
“While it has always been about serving others, it’s time I take care of myself and exit on my terms,” Shildt said in a statement given to the San Diego Union-Tribune. “I gave every fiber of my being to help achieve Peter Seidler’s vision of bringing a World Series Championship to San Diego.
“We fell short of the ultimate goal, but I am proud of what the players, staff and organization were able to accomplish the last two seasons.”
Shildt went 183-141 as manager in San Diego. The Padres won 90 games this season and finished second in the NL West before being eliminated by the Cubs.
“I am most grateful for our players,” Shildt said in his statement. “San Diego is rightfully proud of the Padres players. It is a group that conducts themselves with class, is dedicated to each other and the common goal of winning a World Series. I love our players and will miss them dearly!!
“After 34 years of dedicating myself to the rigors of coaching and managing, I can with great enjoyment look back on achieving my two primary goals: To help players get the most out of their God given ability and become better men. Also, to win games.”
Before joining the Padres organization in early 2022 as a player development coach, Shildt was the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals from 2018 to 2021, posting a winning record in each of his three full seasons. He was the NL Manager of the Year in 2019 after leading the Cards to 91 wins and the NL Central title.
“We would like to congratulate Mike on a successful career and thank him for his significant contributions to the Padres and the San Diego community over the last four years,” Padres general manager A.J. Preller wrote as part of a statement.
Preller added that the search for a new Padres manager “will begin immediately with the goal of winning a World Series championship in 2026.”
The Padres’ new manager will be the eighth person to lead the dugout since Preller fired Bud Black in June 2015. Their chief rival, the Dodgers, has been managed by San Diego County product Dave Roberts since November 2015.
San Diego becomes the eighth MLB team with a managerial opening and the ninth to change managers in this offseason. Texas has already hired Skip Schumaker, but there are openings with the Padres, Angels, Braves, Orioles, Twins, Giants, Nationals and Rockies.
Information from ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez and The Associated Press was used in this report.