Dodgers great Clayton Kershaw closes chapter on one-sided rivalry vs. Giants

LOS ANGELES — Bruce Bochy called it the “Bomb Squad.”Years before the Giants embraced platoon life, Bochy would walk into the visiting manager’s office at Dodger Stadium, see Clayton Kershaw on the other side of his lineup card, and lean as far to the right as he could. He would load up with the likes of Brett Pill, Kelby Tomlinson and Joaquin Arias, hoping that one of his bench players could find a way to pop one over the wall against one of the greatest ever to do it. Occasionally, it worked, and occasional success has really been all the Giants could hope for against Kershaw for the past 18 years. The left-hander announced on Thursday that he will retire at the end of this season, which officially starts the clock on his entrance to Cooperstown. He would have landed in the Hall of Fame no matter which jersey he pitched in, but his performance in rivalry games certainly helped clear the path.Entering Friday’s game, which will be his final regular-season start at Dodger Stadium, Kershaw has 62 career appearances against the Giants. Over 407 1/3 innings, he has a 2.08 ERA and 0.93 WHIP, with 415 strikeouts and a 27-16 record.Kershaw has started more games against the Giants than anyone else, which makes sense. There were years when it seemed the Dodgers went out of their way to inflict pain on their rival. Kershaw has six different seasons in which he faced the Giants at least five times; in four of those seasons, he posted an ERA under 1.70. Kershaw arrived in the big leagues shortly after Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum and once shared an ESPN The Magazine cover with the latter, but it was two other stars from the championship years who played a bigger part in his career.There’s only one player Kershaw faced more than 100 times: Buster Posey. While Posey finished with a .221 average, .594 OPS and three homers over 120 plate appearances, Kershaw never felt it was one-sided. A couple of seasons ago, as he stood in the dugout at Dodger Stadium and talked about years of rivalry games, he marveled at how Posey nearly took Walker Buehler into McCovey Cove during their only postseason meeting. “Buster was always a really hard at-bat,” Kershaw said. “You don’t see many of those guys anymore with the ability to hit homers that still don’t strike out and put good at-bats together and can hit a lot of different types of pitches. You feel like you make good pitches and Buster finds a way to shoot one through the hole or do something. Over the years, I had a game plan and then I had to switch it. It was just that cat-and-mouse game when you face someone so many times.“Back in the day, my strengths matched up with his weaknesses a little bit. Fastballs in and sliders down and in were good places to go with him, and then over time, he made the adjustment that he was going to look in and not miss. He got me a few times when I was doing that, so I had to start throwing more pitches away, more arm-side.”While Kershaw took bragging rights overall in those matchups, another Giant found a way to get an edge when they went head-to-head. Madison Bumgarner twice homered off Kershaw, but over the years, the two became good friends. They would have long conversations on the outfield grass hours before Giants-Dodgers games, and when Bumgarner made his final appearance for the Giants in 2019, it happened to be Kershaw on the mound. Kershaw showed his respect by firing seven straight fastballs, including one down the middle that Bumgarner lined to third. “I tried to throw it as hard as I could,” he said a few years later. “I was like, ‘You know what, screw it. If he hits a homer, good for him.’ It was a cool moment.”Bumgarner always enjoyed their matchups. Most Giants from that era, though, came away empty-handed. Hunter Pence had the second-most at-bats against Kershaw and went 18-for-91 with just one homer. Pablo Sandoval hit .234 with no homers in 64 at-bats. Nobody had a worse time than Brandon Belt, though; he was 4-for-62 with 30 strikeouts. Belt, true to form, always found a way to have a sense of humor about it. “What are you going to do when a guy gets lucky 55 times?” he cracked in 2019.In one of their final matchups, Belt got a small measure of revenge, drawing a walk that helped hand Kershaw his first loss in San Francisco in three seasons. That wasn’t the only time he felt he got bragging rights, though. For years, Belt insisted he was a better high school pitching prospect than his fellow Texan. It turns out that was one outlandish claim from Belt that actually held a lot of truth. “He’s claiming it for himself, huh?” Kershaw said in The Franchise. “He really was, though. We played on a couple of Team USA teams, and he really was. I think he was the best left-handed pitcher in our state.”Injuries kept Belt from following that path, but he turned into a pretty good big league first baseman. Kershaw, years later, became the game’s best pitcher.A three-time Cy Young Award winner and the 2014 NL MVP, Kershaw takes 222 wins and a 2.54 ERA into Friday’s start. He’s a much different pitcher these days, relying heavily on his slider as his fastball has dropped to 89 mph, but he is still effective. In 20 starts as a 37-year-old, Kershaw has a 3.53 ERA. He is in the second percentile in fastball velocity, but 96th percentile in missing barrels. “It feels like he’s had three careers,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “After taking some time off, having some stuff going on earlier this year, and then to pitch like he has this year, it really is remarkable that he’s pitching at his age and the quality that he’s giving them every game out. It’s a testament to hard work and obviously he’s quite the competitor. A lot of similarities to (Justin) Verlander, really.”Kershaw held a press conference on Thursday and said the decision is something he has discussed with his wife, Ellen, all year. There has been plenty of speculation, and in recent weeks, there were signs that this was coming. At Oracle Park last weekend, Kershaw spent a bit more time than usual shagging fly balls with one of his sons, seemingly soaking it all in one last time. “I think it’s the right time,” he said Thursday.Kershaw is unlikely to be in the Dodgers’ playoff rotation, and it’s unclear if he’ll get a chance to pitch at Dodger Stadium out of the bullpen in October. This could be his last time taking the mound in Los Angeles, and he shed some tears Thursday as he talked about his decision. He also noted, however, that it’s a big game for both teams. The Dodgers are trying to wrap up the NL West, while the Giants are clinging to life in the Wild Card race. Kershaw said he will try to treat them as he always has. “I’ve got a job to do,” he said.Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast

Dodgers great Clayton Kershaw closes chapter on one-sided rivalry vs. Giants

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