It was one last batter. One last strikeout. One last ovation for a future Hall of Famer.
And it ended, fittingly, on one last swing-and-miss.
In the top of the sixth inning on Sunday afternoon, in the final regular-season outing of his illustrious 18-year career, Clayton Kershaw snapped off a trademark slider that ducked below the zone. Eugenio Suárez helplessly waved at it like so many others before him.
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With that, Kershaw had his seventh strikeout of the day and the 3,052nd of his career. He had completed 5 ⅓ scoreless innings en route to his 223rd career win, lowering his career ERA to 2.53 — the best among any starting pitcher with 1,000 career innings in the live ball era (since 1920).
Read more: Nine concerns the Dodgers should have about facing the Reds in the NL wild-card series
In the dugout, manager Dave Roberts quickly motioned to veteran first baseman Freddie Freeman. As Kershaw’s last career start came to an end, Roberts wanted one of his fellow superstar teammates to be the one to remove him.
“To be able to take, in my opinion, the greatest pitcher of our generation out of his last regular-season start,” Freeman said, “I think that might be up there as one of my favorite baseball moments that I’ve had.”
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When Freeman got to the mound, he exchanged an embrace with Kershaw, who also hugged the rest of his infield teammates. He jokingly asked for the ball, a request Kershaw declined as he kept it in his grasp.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw embraces his teammates as he gets lifted from Sunday’s game against the Seattle Mariners. (John Froschauer / Associated Press)
Then, the 37-year-old walked off the field for perhaps the final time; donning his cap to a cheering T-Mobile Park crowd, offering a grateful wave as he disappeared into the dugout, and taking a moment for himself on the bench at the end of his 445th MLB outing.
“I’m so grateful for it all,” Kershaw said of the receptions he has gotten since announcing his retirement two weeks ago. “Dodger Stadium last week was pretty amazing. To be able to walk off that mound to that ovation is something I’ll never forget. And today was really special, too. So I couldn’t ask for anything more. It’s been an amazing 10 days, two weeks.”
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“Now,” he added, ahead of what will be his final postseason, “we can all turn our focus to beating the Reds.”
While the Dodgers completed their regular season with a 6-1 win against the Seattle Mariners — which included Shohei Ohtani setting a new personal-best and single-season club record with his 55th home run, breaking the high marks he set last year — the Cincinnati Reds snatched the National League’s final wild-card spot, setting a best-of-three wild card series at Dodger Stadium starting on Tuesday.
Kershaw will not be part of the team’s roster for that series, Roberts announced before the game.
Thus, the Dodgers (who finished the season 93-69) will have to win at least two more games for Kershaw to potentially pitch on a major league mound again.
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“I still feel like I can get people out this next month if I need to,” Kershaw said, before cracking a grin: “And then, I don’t have to do that anymore.”
The decision to leave Kershaw off the wild card roster isn’t shocking.
He was not going to feature in the starting rotation for the series, with Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Ohtani lined up for the three games (Roberts said Snell is a “good bet” to pitch Game 1). And though Kershaw could have been an option in the bullpen, the Dodgers already have an abundance of left-handed relievers.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw and catcher Ben Rortvedt, center left, walk to the dugout after working the fifth inning against the Seattle Mariners. (John Froschauer / Associated Press)
If the Dodgers do advance, Roberts noted, Kershaw will remain in consideration for a roster spot in subsequent rounds and could help out in any capacity.
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“I can see him starting a game. I can see him coming in for a short burst. I can see him in long relief,” Roberts said. “I don’t think anyone can predict how that’s gonna play out. We gotta get through the wild card series, and see who’s standing after that.”
If this is the end of the line for Kershaw, however, he is going out on his own terms.
After being limited by injuries for much of the past three seasons — including missing all of last year’s World Series run with toe and knee injuries that ultimately required offseason surgery — the three-time Cy Young Award winner decided to return to the Dodgers this season for one last crack at a championship chase.
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Even in the twilight of his career, he wound up turning in one of his most impactful performances. Over 23 outings, he posted an 11-2 record, a 3.36 ERA, and provided a steady veteran presence that helped the Dodgers overcome early-season rotation injuries and survive a second-half slump that nearly cost them the division.
“Being healthy, making every start, that’s what I wanted to do,” Kershaw said. “I didn’t want it to be because of an injury that I stopped playing, or to be because I just couldn’t get anybody out anymore. This was perfect. It really was. It was the perfect way to do it.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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