LOS ANGELES — By the end, was there any emotion left?
Friday in Los Angeles was, barring a Clayton Kershaw postseason appearance in The Ravine, the last home game to be celebrated as “Kershaw Day.” That’s been the way Dodger fans have marked time over most of the last 18 seasons, the implication being that on any day the ace was scheduled to take the mound, life held unimaginable promise.
Even if he was no longer unquestionably the ace.
At 37 his stuff is diminished, and as the late Don Sutton used to put it, he is instead dazzling ’em with his footwork. And though Kershaw often has pitched with clinical effectiveness in 2025 – and was, for a change, healthy late in a season – there seems to be uncertainty over the role he’ll assume in the postseason, on a starting staff that is both healthy and loaded.
The reaction in Dodger Stadium on Friday night, all the way through his 4⅓-inning, 91-pitch outing in a 6-3 victory over the San Francisco Giants, wasn’t so much “farewell” as it was “thank you.” Thanks for the memories, thanks for the triumphs, thanks for conducting your career with class and for going out in the same way.
And he responded in kind, right from the beginning of the night – when his teammates held back as he ran to the mound so he could soak in the crowd’s affection, before he noticed he was the only one out there and frantically waved at them to join him on the field.
“I didn’t love it, but it was a great gesture,” he said. “You know, the guys have gone above and beyond the last few days for me. … I never want to (be) a distraction to the game or anything like that, because obviously winning is the most important thing for us, especially right now.
“The whole night was just special.”
About the only thing Kershaw didn’t come away with Friday night was a victory, and maybe this was a case of going out the way he came in. When he first reached the majors in May of 2008, as a 20-year-old prospect who had been impressive in Double-A, it took 10 appearances (plus another brief sojourn in the minors) before he posted his first big league pitching victory, a 2-0 victory over the Washington Nationals on July 27, 2008.
This season, in 21 starts, he has a 10-2 record and 3.55 ERA, and has won his last six decisions. Friday’s was a no-decision because he left after getting Rafael Devers on a called third strike for the first out of the fifth, on his 91st pitch of the night. He left with a 2-1 deficit, and the game ball, but Edgardo Henriquez was the subsequent beneficiary of Shohei Ohtani’s three-run homer and Mookie Betts’ solo shot in the bottom of the inning, for a 5-2 Dodger lead.
But when Manager Dave Roberts came out to replace him, he also gave Kershaw a hug on the mound as the crowd – announced as 53,037, ticket prices on the secondary market having spiked for this last home appearance – gave him a standing ovation. Kershaw doffed his cap, crossed his arms as if to give the entire crowd a hug, embraced his teammates one by one, popped back out of the dugout and tapped his heart, and waved to his wife Ellen and family in the second deck.
Were there tears shed?
“From him, yes,” Roberts said.
Part of the reason for this emotion, and this celebration? Performance, obviously; three Cy Young Awards, an MVP trophy, more than 3,000 strikeouts and two World Series rings sort of speak for themselves.
And another part involved longevity and loyalty. A meme on social media noted three players who approached 20-year careers exclusively in L.A.: Kershaw, the late Kobe Bryant with the Lakers and the Kings’ Anze Kopitar, who announced that this would be his final season just a couple of hours before Kershaw made his retirement official on Thursday afternoon.
Kershaw said at last year’s World Series celebration that he was a “Dodger for life.” This cemented it, and the fans of L.A. obviously have relished it.
“I don’t think it can (be overstated), in a world (where) people take the easy way out, chase short money,” Roberts said before the game. “You know, the ‘grass is greener’ kind of adage. The loyalty part of it is just not what it used to be. That’s just my opinion.
“Clayton lives by those values, and it means something for him to wear the same uniform. And was it rocky, was it uneasy at the negotiating table at times, and taking a little bit less, or betting on yourself or whatever it might be to remain a Dodger? Yeah, but I think for me that’s where I just gained a lot of respect for him.”
The fans have as well. Kershaw compared it to a relationship, noting that “You’ve been 18 years in this with them, and there’s some great times. And then, you know, there’s some times where you probably want to break up for a minute. I think just having them behind me the way they have been has been it’s just been icing on the cake.”
Even Kershaw’s fatal flaw, all of those postseasons when he came up empty, will be only a small blemish on his resume. Winning two rings in the last five seasons has helped, and he does have a chance at another in 2025. And it must be noted that many of those postseason issues arose in situations when he had to pitch on short rest or longer into games, to assume a greater workload because others couldn’t.
He was willing to “take on the responsibility, the burden of being, you know, the clear-cut staff ace and what had to come with that, right?” Roberts said. “He’s kind of seen the organization where it was, and there were some lean times 18 years ago. To then kind of see where we’re at the last 10, 12 years … he’s been right there in the middle of it.”
That’s your reminder, by the way, that Kershaw broke in with the Frank McCourt Dodgers. This franchise has come a long way in 18 years, just as he has.
“I’m so grateful I got to be here so long,” Kershaw said. “We’ve had a lot of great teams throughout the years, and we have a lot of great people come through those doors. And the Dodger culture has been established long before me, and it’ll be established long after I’m gone.
“You know, that’s the cool thing about baseball is that your career will just be gone in an instant, and the game keeps going … this game doesn’t need anybody, you know? So I’m just, I’m so grateful I got to be a small part of Dodger history for as long as I’ve been here. We’ve had some amazing groups along the way. And this one’s pretty special this year.”
There will be one last regular-season start next weekend in Seattle followed by another playoff run, this one with the deepest starting rotation this franchise has carried into a postseason in decades.
And let it be noted that the guy who has worn 22 all these years – all but that first game in 2008, when the rookie callup wore No. 54 – is currently sitting on 222 career victories. If he’s the last Dodger to wear No. 22 before it goes up on the left field facade and Kershaw himself heads for Cooperstown, that would probably be fitting.
In the meantime, what will the fans do to replace “Kershaw Day?”
jalexander@scng.com