Clayton Kershaw went to the mound Sunday needing to strike out six batters to reach 300 for the season, something no major league pitcher had done in 13 years.
With the first round of the postseason against the New York Mets looming, he wasn’t going to stick around very long. Maybe a couple of innings or so, just enough to stay sharp, even if he didn’t remain long enough to get to 300.
And yet he did get there, striking out seven San Diego Padres in just 3 2/3 innings, and getting two standing ovations from Dodgers fans along the way.
In the end, he finished the 2015 regular season with a 16-7 record, a 2.13 ERA, a WHIP of 0.88 and a strikeout total of 301, a nice exclamation point for a pitcher who has won three Cy Young Awards and a Most Valuable Player trophy.
The last pitchers to get to 300 strikeouts in a season were Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, who did it in 2002 as teammates on the Arizona Diamondbacks. The last Dodger to get to 300 was, not surprisingly, Sandy Koufax, who did it in 1963, 1965 and 1966.
Like Koufax, Kershaw is a left-hander, and like Koufax, he seems to be carving out a Hall of Fame career. Kershaw also considers Koufax a friend.
His accomplishment created another link with his Dodger predecessor, and when Kershaw spoke to reporters after Sunday’s game he did not try to diminish what he had achieved by getting to 300.
“It’s definitely a cool thing,” Kershaw said. “It’s obviously not the most important thing in the world but definitely something that when you’re looking back and your career is said and done, you’ll get to say you did that once. Pretty cool.”
With nothing to play for in the standings, Jimmy Rollins, the veteran Dodgers shortstop, was the guest manager for Don Mattingly on Sunday, and so it was he who walked to the mound in the fourth inning to pull Kershaw after 60 pitches. And Rollins encountered none of the resistance Mattingly normally endures when he tries to take Kershaw out of a game.
“Kersh came out easy for him,” Mattingly joked afterward. “He went out smiling. I haven’t seen Kersh smile on the field in like five years.”
Kershaw, it should be noted, also tipped his cap to the cheering fans when he departed, something he rarely does, either.
With the Dodgers having home-field advantage for their division series with the Mets, Kershaw is now slated to pitch Game 1 on Friday at Dodger Stadium. Mattingly hasn’t officially announced his rotation yet, but Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis confirmed what everyone expected — that Kershaw will go first, with Zack Greinke, the equally formidable Dodgers right-hander, following him in Game 2.
For whatever reason, pitching in the postseason has been somewhat problematical for Kershaw. Overall, he is 1-5 with a 5.12 ERA in 11 postseason games, including eight starts. The St. Louis Cardinals have been his postseason nemesis, and if the Dodgers get past the Mets, another rematch with the Cardinals is possible in the National League Championship Series.
Asked if he feels better prepared for this year’s postseason, Kershaw said: “I don’t know. We’ll find out.”
On Sunday, Kershaw’s 300th strikeout came when he fanned Melvin Upton Jr. with a curveball. Upton flung his bat, and Ellis, behind the plate, was gratified. “Accumulating that many strikeouts is so incredible,” Ellis said. “I know it meant a lot to him even though he lied and probably said it didn’t before.”
“He responds the same way when he loses a game in June than when he does in the playoffs,” Ellis added. “This guy hates to lose. I think he does such a great job, living in that five-day window where he doesn’t get too far ahead of himself and he doesn’t live in the past at all. He lives in the present. He lives in that five days. We were already joking Sunday, talking about how he’ll come in Monday morning. Everybody else gets a day off, and he’s got to come in and work out.
“He knows that’s part of his job and part of his routine. He’ll be here running foul pole to foul pole and lifting weights and getting ready for Friday’s start.”
Which may not be something the Mets are looking forward to.
