Goodbye, Kersh.
Clayton Kershaw
The Dodgers build momentum heading into the Wild Card round and say ‘farewell’ to their pitching legend.
And there it is, folks. The 2025 MLB regular season is a wrap.
Farewell to the GOAT
It’s completely fair to refer to Clayton Kershaw as one of the greatest pitchers in Major League Baseball history. 3 CY Young Awards (one in 2014 along with the National League MVP). Look at his numbers for those CY Young seasons.
MLB.com
He’s also thrown a no-no. He’s won 2 World Series rings. He’s statistically the best in several pitching categories, and he’s going out with a better record and ERA than his first season way back in 2008. That’s with around the same number of starts, too.
MLB.com
It will be strange to see number 22 up on the Dodger Stadium suite level with the other retired numbers instead of out on the field, tossing a gem. But, all great careers come to end. Kersh, thank you for making your entire career one in Dodger Blue.
Wild Stuff
For this Dodgers fan, the season was an exhausting journey. It began in Japan with a jolt and a franchise best 8-game winning streak before it descended into a frustrating mess of blown saves and runners left on base. As the calendar turned to September, it seemed to me like the Dodgers were running on fumes. I was in a bad place the first half of the month. Blue Heaven was looking bleak, but the starting pitching improved and hitters broke out of extended slumps while Shohei was simply Shohei. That was enough to help the team win another National League West division title.
This one was hard fought and secured with more an instinct to survive than a will to kill, but the Dodgers closed their season out with a 5-game winning streak and some momentum swing their way into the Wild Card series. They’ll need to capitalize on that momentum for the next month, beginning on Tuesday versus the Cincinnati Reds. This is the first time in a few years that the Dodgers have had to play in the Wild Card round. The last time was in 2021 against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Dodgers won 106 games that year, but their long-time rivals, the San Francisco Giants, won 107 games and the division. So, the 106-win Dodgers had to play the 90-win Cardinals in a wild, one-game playoff round. The Dodgers walked that one off.
I feel good about the Dodgers’ chances in this round because…
The head-to-head starting rotation for the Wild Card series against the Reds is projected to be:
Game 1 – Blake Snell vs. Hunter Greene
Game 2 – Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Andrew Abbott
Game 3 (if necessary) – Shohei Ohtani vs. Nick Lodolo
The Reds have great starting pitching, but the Dodgers have the advantage here. Tyler Glasnow and Emmet Sheehan may pitch out of the bullpen. They’ll eat innings, if necessary, which will help the high-leverage guys at least stay fresh. The Dodgers also have a better starting lineup that is getting hot. Mookie Betts’ season-long slump is an afterthought after several weeks of good hitting. Michael Conforto was even worse for most of the season, but he’s been hitting better the last month of the season. Someone like him or Alex Call will need to step up and become the 2025 version of Tommy Edman. Of course, there’s playoff Kiké, the Dodger’s X-factor in October.
I worry about the Dodgers in this round because...
The bullpen blew 27 saves, and the Reds swept the Dodgers when the Blue Crew went to Cincinnati earlier in the season. That Dodgers team isn’t the same as this Dodgers team, but the bullpen just blew a save last week against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Anything can happen in a short series, which is why teams try to avoid playing in them, but here we are. They only thing that can be done is win two games in a row and send the Reds packing.
We’ll see what happens.
