Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw, with Sandy Koufax watching, delivers redemptive moment

Billy Heyen

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Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw, with Sandy Koufax watching, delivers redemptive moment image

The postseason, for a long time, was Clayton Kershaw's kryptonite. A guy with an argument as the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time inexplicably ran into trouble in October.

That's what made this moment Monday night (or Tuesday morning on the East Coast) so absolutely, exquisitely beautiful. Kershaw had already gotten some redemption in his career, beginning with a ring in 2020. But this was different.

This was the most high-stakes entrance Kershaw has ever made.

Top of the 12th inning of Game 3 of a World Series tied at a game apiece. The bases loaded. Two outs. Kershaw hadn't pitched since the NLDS.

Kershaw had been warming up for three-plus innings. He'd been letting the adrenaline rise and fall, over and over.

Finally, with lefty Nathan Lukes coming up, manager Dave Roberts called on the future first ballot Hall of Famer.

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Sitting in the front row, watching, was Sandy Koufax, another southpaw with an argument as the greatest to ever do it, a guy with a close relationship to Kershaw after so much time in Los Angeles for the guy who has worn number 22 since he was a 20 year old just breaking in so many years ago.

Koufax threw his final MLB pitch in the World Series more than 50 years ago.

Kershaw is going to do the same thing. He has already announced he is retiring when this season is over.

Whether this would be his last outing or not was to be determined. But it could be.

And so the stakes were sky high. And it was a chance at one final bit of career redemption for Kershaw.

As one of the all-time greats should, even with doubts and worries and nerves, Kershaw delivered.

The count got to 3-2. A walk would've given Toronto the lead.

But Kershaw instead induced a jammed groundout, handled by Tommy Edman, and on to the next inning.

Kershaw got a huge hug from Roberts, signaling that that would be the only batter he faced.

The Dodgers moved on to a new arm for the 13th inning, maybe never to return to Kershaw.

But if that was the last pitch Kershaw ever throws in Major League Baseball, it was one that he, and Dodgers fans, and simply baseball fans all across the planet, would never forget.

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Senior Editor