Exactly 227 exceptional times, Clayton Kershaw took the ball to start a regular-season home game for the Los Angeles Dodgers. For all 227 times, you expected excellence, professionalism, leadership, and the performance of someone for whom you feel the term heart of a champion was created. Having announced his pending retirement at the end of the year, Kershaw will make one more regular-season start at home for Los Angeles. It’s only fitting it will come against the San Francisco Giants, this franchise’s
biggest rival and one of Kershaw’s favorite victims ever since he tried on Dodger Blue for the first time.
While there is and will be plenty of time to reflect on the career of Kershaw, let’s stick to the pitcher we know now, and what he means for this team on and off the field. At 37 years of age, with the mileage of over 3000 professional innings in the bigs and a lengthy injury history that has greatly affected the backend of his career, Kershaw remains an incredibly positive force for this Dodgers team. A club that remains fighting and scrapping for each win as the race to win the NL West goes down to the wire.
While the exact role for Kershaw in the postseason is still a bit of a mystery, there is no doubt he’ll be a major factor, currently pitching to the tune of a 10-2 record with a 119 ERA+. If anything, the questions around Kershaw’s role have strictly to do with how ludicrous the whole starting rotation has been rather than any concerns or drawbacks from having the future first-ballot Hall of Famer on the mound.
Absolutely nothing can take away from the majestic nature of this game against the Giants, one that transcends just the result at the end of nine innings of play. Nevertheless, Kershaw’s goodbye at home comes with a clear mission and a level of performance in 2025 to back up the expectation he’ll ultimately deliver against a team he’s beaten 27 times in his career.
Kershaw will be facing San Francisco for a third time this year, more than he has any other team. A week after struggling against this Giants lineup at Oracle Park, Kershaw will attempt to emulate his outstanding performance hosting the Giants back in mid-June, when he held them to seven scoreless frames.
Friday game info
- Teams: Dodgers vs. Giants
- Ballpark: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
- Start time: 7:10 p.m.
- TV: SportsNet LA
- Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)
