There is no doubt that Los Angeles Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw is one of the best pitchers of this generation.
The Dodgers southpaw is a surefire Hall of Famer after 18 spectacular seasons on the mound, all in Los Angeles.
Kershaw helped catapult the Dodgers to new heights during his tenure, but his postseason struggles were evident.
Kershaw is considered one of the greatest regular-season pitchers in baseball history, but the conversation changes when it comes to his October performance.
However, it’s not entirely black and white when it comes to Kershaw and October.
Dodgers ace Tarik Skubal recently defended Kershaw against the unfair postseason narrative surrounding him.
āI donāt really buy into that narrative with Kersh, the postseason struggles,ā Skubal said.
On the surface, Kershaw’s play in the regular season versus October is stark.
His regular-season ERA sits at 2.43, while his postseason ERA sits at 4.30. On top of that, Kershaw has had a number of meltdowns, including the 2023 National League Division Series against the Ariziona Diamondbacks and a 2019 relief appearance against the Washington Nationals.
Those meltdowns disproportionately skew his career postseason ERA over roughly 200 innings.
A ton of factors play into that, including the workload he endured before October. Kershaw made 41 postseason appearances, but four came on short rest, and nine were relief appearances.
āIt takes a superhuman to be held to the standard he was being held to, in the biggest of moments,ā Skubal said. āI think he was great. He did everything he could for his team. He wore it out there sometimes. Chasing box scores and stuff is kind of unfair to judge guys on, because Iām sure he was pitching through some stuff and grinding through some stuff.
āBut he had to do it, because he was Clayton Kershaw.ā
The bad often outweighs the good, and that is no exception when it comes to Kershaw.
He had some stellar outings, including Game 2 of the 2016 NL Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs, Game 1 of the 2013 NLDS against the Atlanta Braves and Game 1 of the 2020 World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Kershaw certainly deserves some blame; however, managers like Don Mattingly and Dave Roberts occasionally left him out too long, which eventually led to those blow-up innings where he got the blame.
Either way, Skubal ā like many other MLB fans and pundits ā doesn’t buy into the “choker” label that has been unfairly placed on Kershaw.
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