Clayton Kershaw Suffers Another Failure When It Comes To His Postseason Legacy

An aura of confidence surrounded the Los Angeles Dodgers heading into Game One of the 2023 National League Division Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Besides home field advantage in the best-of-five series, the Dodgers posted an 8-5 record against the Diamondbacks during the regular season with a +25 run differential according to Baseball-Reference. Along with achieving at least 100 victories for the fifth time since the 2017 season, manager Dave Roberts handed the baseball to one of the greatest left-handed pitchers of all-time in Clayton Kershaw.

The crowd hadn’t even settled in at Dodger Stadium before Kershaw was sitting in the dugout dripping wet from exhaustion after a disastrous performance that only lasted a third of an inning. In 35 pitches, Kershaw had surrendered six earned runs on six hits over eight batters. The Diamondbacks’ aggressiveness was overwhelming as they had swung at 24 of Kershaw’s pitches and only missed making contact on five of them according to Baseball Savant. The silence throughout the ballpark was deafening as it was a rare combination of shock and empathy for Kershaw as he walked off the mound with an unfathomable 162.00 earned run average for the evening. The Diamondbacks had defeated the Dodgers by the score of 11-2 and took a 1-0 lead in the series.