TORONTO — As quickly as Blake Treinen entered for the ninth inning of Recreation 5 of the World Sequence on Wednesday evening, Clayton Kershaw dropped his guard and started to go searching.
For the earlier three hours, the longer term Corridor of Fame pitcher had been locked in on the sport, mentally getting ready for a possible reduction look from out within the bullpen.
However when that didn’t come, the 37-year-old Kershaw then let himself chill out, took within the scene of an October evening at Chavez Ravine, and soaked up the ultimate moments of what was his ultimate recreation ever at Dodger Stadium.
“It’s a bizarre thought, of like, ‘That is your final recreation ever there,’” mentioned Kershaw, who introduced final month he’ll retire on the finish of this season. “And never a tragic thought. Actually, only a grateful thought. Identical to, ‘Man, we spent loads of nice occasions right here.’”
Win or lose in Video games 6 and seven of this World Sequence, Kershaw’s total profession will finish this weekend at Rogers Centre in Toronto. However on Wednesday evening, he closed the ebook on the ballpark he has known as residence for all 18 seasons of his illustrious MLB profession.
Dodger Stadium is the place Kershaw first made his big-league debut again in Could 2008, as a extremely anticipated left-handed prospect with an enormous curveball and quiet demeanor. It was the stage for his rise to stardom over the practically 20 years that adopted, as he went on to seize three Cy Younger Awards, 2014 Nationwide League MVP honors and a profession 2.53 ERA that ranks as the most effective amongst pitchers with 1,000 innings within the dwell ball period.
It’s the place he skilled a number of the most defining moments of his profession, together with a no-hitter in 2014 and his 3,000th strikeout earlier this 12 months. It’s additionally the place he suffered repeated October disappointments, none greater than the back-to-back residence runs he gave up in Recreation 5 of the 2019 Nationwide League Division Sequence.
In different phrases, it was all the time residence for Kershaw, the place he would return to day after day, 12 months after 12 months, season after season — regardless of the highs or lows, aches and pains, successes or failures.
“I simply began excited about it when the sport ended,” mentioned Kershaw, who elected to traverse the sphere to get again to the clubhouse after Wednesday’s recreation as a substitute of the linked bullpen tunnel. “I used to be like, ‘Man, I’d as effectively stroll throughout this factor yet another time.’”
About an hour later, Kershaw would linger on the sphere a little bit longer, joined for an impromptu gathering by his spouse, Ellen; their 4 youngsters; and different household and buddies in attendance for his final residence recreation.
“Ellen simply texted after and was like, ‘Hey, we bought an enormous crew,’” Kershaw mentioned. “So I used to be, ‘Nicely, simply go to the sphere. I’ll attempt to bathe quick so we will hang around.’”
Tv cameras caught Kershaw laughing as his youngsters ran the bases, tried to throw baseballs at a hovering drone and loved a diamond that had grow to be their very own private childhood playground over time.
At one level, Kershaw posed with the Dodger Stadium grounds crew for an image — standing on a mound that they had manicured for all of his 228 profession begins within the stadium.
“Actually, it was superior,” Kershaw mentioned. “It was the proper approach to do it. Simply have everyone on the market, operating round … It was unplanned, unprompted, however an awesome reminiscence.”
Kershaw, after all, is hoping so as to add yet another Dodger Stadium reminiscence subsequent week. If the group can reverse its three-games-to-two deficit within the World Sequence this weekend in Toronto, it will return to Chavez Ravine for a championship celebration.
If not, although, he’ll have a pair parting moments to cherish, from Wednesday’s postgame scene down on the sphere, to his ultimate profession Dodger Stadium outing again in Recreation 4 during which he stranded the bases loaded within the twelfth for one of many largest outs in his total profession.
“I’m tremendous grateful with how that went, versus the final time earlier than that,” he quipped, having given up 5 runs in his solely different Dodger Stadium look this postseason. “You’ll be able to’t plan any of that stuff. Who is aware of if it ever works out. However yeah, to get that one final out was fairly cool.”
So, too, was his one final evening Wednesday.
