Clayton Kershaw’s mantra for holding the Dodgers together: ‘Next pitch’
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
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.
“Yeah,” he said, “I don’t want to be average.”
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Heather Dinich, Senior College Football Insider
ATLANTA — Following Ohio State‘s fourth straight loss to Michigan, the players had a meeting with coach Ryan Day during which they “really hashed some things out,” quarterback Will Howard said Saturday, a turning point in their season that helped propel the team to Monday’s national championship game against Notre Dame.
“It was really a truth-telling time,” Howard said at the College Football Playoff media day. “The facts were laid out there. People were challenged. Everyone including myself had to look in the mirror a little bit and say, ‘What can I do better? How can we fix this thing?’ The thing that we clung to was we still have this opportunity out in front of us to right all these wrongs and go play for a national championship and here we are. We’re right where we wanted to be. A lot of people wrote us off, but we really just believed in ourselves.”
The Buckeyes were favored by 21 points against Michigan, the widest point spread for the rivalry since 1978, according to ESPN Research. Since then, they have reeled off three straight playoff wins — against Tennessee, Big Ten champion Oregon and SEC runner-up Texas.
Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly said the team has shown its resiliency over the past few weeks, but had a choice to make.
“They talked through it,” Kelly said. “I think they understood what was presented, what’s ahead of us. I think that’s a big point. When you look at the game against Michigan, it could be one of two things: It could be your tombstone, or it could be a stepping stone, and Ryan and our players turned it into a stepping stone.”
Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said the 13-10 loss to Michigan made the team closer. After the first loss of the season to Oregon, Knowles said, “There were a lot of fingers being pointed at the defense. And the second one, it was kind of the other way.”
“I made a point to say to our guys, ‘Remember what that felt like the first time? You need to go out of your way to pick up your brothers on offense,'” Knowles said. “In a way they did, and it kind of really merged us.”
The Buckeyes are making their sixth national championship game appearance (national championship games began with the inception of the BCS in the 1998 season), but haven’t won one since the 2014 season. Ohio State is 2-3 in national championship games. The Buckeyes are trying to win their first national title under Day, who faced heavy backlash and questions about his job security following the loss to Michigan.
“Every year you learn and you grow,” he said, “trying to be self-aware enough to surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth, hoping to get better, and that’s really all you can do.
“When you go through great moments, you really grab on to the people who are around you, and it’s the same thing when you go through difficult moments,” Day said. “That’s why you build relationships.”
Ohio State has a 6-2 lead in the all-time series and has won six straight. Notre Dame’s last win over Ohio State came in 1936. Knowles said Day never allowed any of the criticism to impact his work or effect the staff.
“It’s not something we talk about because we just try to put our heads down and work,” Knowles said. “But in the end, brothers in arms, you’re happy he is being seen for the quality of person and coach that he is because he does a great job and he cares about the players and is in tune with what’s going on with the staff. The only thing you can do to help is win, so I’m glad we have done that.”
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Paolo Uggetti, ESPN
ATLANTA — After being limited to one catch in Ohio State‘s Cotton Bowl semifinal victory over Texas, freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith gave a warning Saturday in advance of the Buckeyes’ national championship matchup against Notre Dame.
“If you are going to play man [to-man defense] against Ohio State, be ready,” Smith said. “I can’t wait to put on a show.”
Smith, who repeatedly pointed out during his media day availability that the Irish play man-to-man defense “80%” of the time, acknowledged that he relishes when defenses try to stop him with only one defender.
“What [the Irish do] they do very, very well. So for them to change up what they do, would be kind of silly,” Ohio State wide receivers coach Brian Hartline told ESPN. “They’re really, really good players, great players on the outside. And we’re really great players on the outside, too. It’s what you want in a game of this magnitude.”
Following Smith’s best game of the season against Oregon in the Rose Bowl (187 yards and two touchdowns), Texas’ secondary sold out to stop Smith, whose only catch in the Buckeyes’ win was for 3 yards.
“You watch the film — they doubled, tripled me,” Smith said. “It’s frustrating, but being a decoy helped us win the game.”
In his first year at Ohio State, Smith has been a supernova, catching 71 passes for 1,227 yards and 14 touchdowns. Heading into this game, he’s averaging 17.3 yards per catch.
“He’s one of the most talented dudes I’ve been around … you always want to try to get him the ball,” quarterback Will Howard said. “But he can also take out two or three guys at a time [as a decoy], and sometimes that’s a good thing.”
Smith’s performance in the Cotton Bowl was by far his least productive of the season, but it helped to open up opportunities for other skill players such as Carnell Tate (seven catches for 87 yards) and Quinshon Judkins (two receiving touchdowns).
Whether the Irish try to go away from their usual playing style in order to limit Smith or stick to their scheme remains to be seen. Although Smith noted that Notre Dame’s secondary might be the best they have faced all season, he is ready for the challenge.
“If I’ve got to be a decoy in this game, I’ll be a decoy,” Smith said. “All I want to do is win.”
Also, Ohio State star DE JT Tuimoloau, who rolled his ankle against Texas, talked about his health and the injury.
“I feel really good. I feel really good. One thing, our strength coach says you can’t do too much of taking care of your body, so I’m overloaded on take care of everything.”
Tuimoloau said he’s been somewhat limited in practice to nurse the ankle back.
“Me and Coach Day bumped heads; I want to get out there, he wants me to rest, so we met somewhere in the middle.”
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