{"id":33215,"date":"2025-11-01T09:19:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T09:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/33215\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T09:19:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T09:19:19","slug":"clayton-kershaw-on-his-final-game-night-at-dodger-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/33215\/","title":{"rendered":"Clayton Kershaw on his final game night at Dodger Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TORONTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0As soon as Blake Treinen entered for the ninth inning of Game 5 of the World Series<\/a> on Wednesday night, Clayton Kershaw<\/a> dropped his guard and began to look around.<\/p>\n

For the previous three hours, the future Hall of Fame pitcher had been locked in on the game, mentally preparing for a potential relief appearance from out in the bullpen.<\/p>\n

But when that didn\u2019t come, the 37-year-old Kershaw then let himself relax, took in the scene of an October night at Chavez Ravine, and soaked up the final moments of what was his final game at Dodger Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a weird thought, of like, \u2018This is your last game ever there,\u2019\u201d said Kershaw, who announced last month he will retire<\/a> at the end of this season. \u201cAnd not a sad thought. Honestly, just a grateful thought. Just like, \u2018Man, we spent a lot of great times here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Win or lose in Games 6 and 7 of this World Series, Kershaw\u2019s overall career will end this weekend at Rogers Centre in Toronto. But on Wednesday night, he closed the book on the ballpark he has called home for all 18 seasons of his illustrious MLB career.<\/p>\n

Dodger Stadium is where Kershaw made his big-league debut in May 2008, as a highly anticipated left-handed prospect with a big curveball and quiet demeanor. It was the stage for his rise to stardom over the nearly two decades that followed, as he went on to capture three Cy Young Awards, 2014 National League MVP honors and a career 2.53 ERA that ranks as the best among pitchers with 1,000 innings in the live ball era.<\/p>\n

It is where he experienced some of the most defining moments of his career, including a no-hitter in 2014<\/a> and his 3,000th strikeout earlier this year<\/a>. It\u2019s also where he suffered repeated October disappointments, none bigger than the back-to-back home runs he gave up in Game 5 of the 2019 National League Division Series.<\/p>\n

In other words, it was always home for Kershaw, the place he would return to day after day, year after year, season after season \u2014 no matter the highs or lows, aches and pains, successes or failures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just started thinking about it when the game ended,\u201d said Kershaw, who elected to traverse the field to get back to the clubhouse after Wednesday\u2019s game instead of the connected bullpen tunnel. \u201cI was like, \u2018Man, I might as well walk across this thing one more time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

About an hour later, Kershaw lingered on the field a little longer, joined for an impromptu gathering by his wife, Ellen; their four children; and other family and friends in attendance for his last home game.<\/p>\n

\u201cEllen just texted after and was like, \u2018Hey, we got a big crew,\u2019\u201d Kershaw said. \u201cSo I was, \u2018Well, just go to the field. I\u2019ll try to shower fast so we can hang out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Television cameras caught Kershaw laughing as his kids ran the bases, tried to throw baseballs at a hovering drone and enjoyed a diamond that had become their own personal childhood playground over the years.<\/p>\n

At one point, Kershaw posed with the Dodger Stadium grounds crew for a picture \u2014 standing on a mound they had manicured for all of his 228 career starts in the stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it was awesome,\u201d Kershaw said. \u201cIt was the perfect way to do it. Just have everybody out there, running around \u2026 It was unplanned, unprompted, but a great memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kershaw, of course, is hoping to add one more Dodger Stadium memory next week. If the team can reverse its three-games-to-two deficit in the World Series this weekend in Toronto, it would return to Chavez Ravine for a championship celebration.<\/p>\n

If not, though, he\u2019ll have a couple parting moments to cherish, from Wednesday\u2019s postgame scene down on the field, to his final career Dodger Stadium outing in Game 4<\/a> in which he stranded the bases loaded in the 12th for one of the biggest outs in his entire career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super grateful with how that went, as opposed to the last time before that<\/a>,\u201d he quipped, having given up five runs in his only other Dodger Stadium appearance this postseason. \u201cYou can\u2019t plan any of that stuff. Who knows if it ever works out. But yeah, to get that one last out was pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, too, was his one last night Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0As soon as Blake Treinen entered for the ninth inning of Game 5 of the World Series on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[24008,5676,18647,217,2139,6308,24009,7093,423,48,52,51,47,50,49,278,13431,20295,2695,4470,72],"class_list":["post-33215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-37-year-old-kershaw","tag-career","tag-clayton-kershaw","tag-day","tag-dodger-stadium","tag-field","tag-final-game-night","tag-final-moment","tag-game","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-season","tag-toronto","tag-wednesday-night","tag-weekend","tag-world-series","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}