TORONTO – Clayton Kershaw’s career came to an end without him even knowing it.
The future Hall of Famer announced weeks ago that he would retire at the conclusion of this season, his 18th in the major leagues. Win or lose, Saturday’s Game 7 was going to be his last game as an active player.
The Dodgers were clinging to a one-run lead in the bottom of the 11th inning and Yoshinobu Yamamoto had entered his third inning in relief just one day after throwing 96 pitches as the Game 6 starter when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led off with a double.
Kershaw got up in the Dodgers bullpen and started to warm up while the Blue Jays bunted Guerrero to third, putting the tying run just 90 feet away, and Addison Barger walked.
“I had no idea we had one out. Honestly. I didn’t know,” a shirtless Kershaw recounted in the clubhouse after the Dodgers had won Game 7. “I turned around and saw them hit into the double play. I thought the run scored and it was tied. I had no idea. I was getting going. I thought I had the next batter.”
Dodgers bullpen coach Josh Bard gave Kershaw the good news – that the Dodgers had just won back-to-back titles..
“He looked at me and said, “We just won the World Series’ and I was “Are you sure?’” Kershaw said.
The rest was a blur of hugs, photo ops with his family, beer and champagne showers for Kershaw.
“Hard to put into words, honestly,” he said of his emotions in those post-game moments.
“I’m just so grateful. I think the way my career, this season, ended has been more than I could ever hope for. I’m a little speechless, a little bit shocked that we won this one tonight. But it’s just amazing. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
The fact that he was reaching the end of his career really started setting in for Kershaw after Game 5 in Los Angeles, his final game at Dodger Stadium. Afterwards, he went back out on the field, took pictures with everyone from his family to the grounds crew and watched his four kids run the bases at their dad’s long-time workplace.
“A little bit,” he said Saturday night about the reality hitting him. “But it’s not a sad ending. It really isn’t. I mean, I will be able to say for the rest of my life that we won Game 7 of the World Series the last game I ever played. You can’t script that. You can’t write it up. Even if I was not throwing 88 (mph), I still would be done. It’s just the perfect way to end it.”
Kershaw pitched just once in this World Series and faced only one batter. But it was a critical situation with the bases loaded in the 12th inning of the 18-inning Game 3 marathon. He retired Nathan Lukes to keep the game tied.
“You can’t script that either,” Kershaw said. “To have it be at Dodger Stadium, have it be the last one – you can’t script that either. That’s so cool.”
Throughout the postseason, Kershaw had pushed away any suggestions that the Dodgers were motivated to send him out a winner. But many of his teammates acknowledged the desire to have Kershaw retire as a three-time World Series champion and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts gave Kershaw the honor of speaking in front of the team and popping the first bottle of champagne in the victorious clubhouse.
“I can’t imagine a better way to go out than to pop bottles with this group,” Kershaw said, setting off the celebration. “Back-to-back champs!”
In recent years, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said more than once that “everything is right in the world” when Kershaw is in a Dodgers uniform. The world will change around the Dodgers next season but Friedman let Kershaw know there would always be a place for him in the organization.
“He mentioned something where I could hang out,” Kershaw said of the open-ended job offer. “That’s good, man. I don’t know what that looks like. But this is a special organization. They don’t need me to win World Series. That’s obvious. But if there’s anything I can do in the future to be part of it, be around it, I hope that’s the case.
“I think first and foremost is for me to have this fifth kid and be a dad for awhile. I don’t think there’s any full-time jobs in my immediate future.”
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