The Los Angeles Dodgers are on the verge of a return trip to the World Series, where they'll hope to defend their championship from a year ago.
Clayton Kershaw is on the roster, and he's one of the greatest left-handed pitchers in the history of the sport.
In most scenarios of this, you'd expect Kershaw to have played a key role in what is happening.
Instead, Kershaw hasn't stepped on the mound in any of the first three games of the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers, and he's not getting a Game 4 start, either.
Kershaw has already announced he is retiring at the end of this season. And at this point, it's not clear whether he'll end up getting a chance to pitch again.
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Where is Clayton Kershaw?
Clayton Kershaw is right there, with the Los Angeles Dodgers, one of the 26 players selected to the NLCS roster.
Just, so far, he hasn't gotten to pitch in this series.
Part of that is because Blake Snell went eight innings in Game 1, and then Yoshinobu Yamamoto went a complete game in Game 2.
Kershaw is only in a bullpen role now, and that's an odd spot for the lifelong starting pitcher to be.\
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He got to pitch in the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies, but in 2.0 innings, he allowed five runs, including two home runs.
Manager Dave Roberts has seemed content to ride his starting pitchers right now, with Snell, Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani.
As sad as it might be, Kershaw might only be a mop-up guy at this point, or maybe someone who would come in if a starter got shelled in the first few innings, able to use his wisdom to provide some mid-game length.
But unless something magical happens, it's looking like the end to Kershaw's baseball career will go quite quietly.
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