Clayton Kershaw Admits Selfish Motive In Bold Bullpen Move as Dodgers Near Divisional Title

The Los Angeles Dodgers may have given us a sneak peek into their postseason plans on Wednesday. After 6 whole years, they reintroduced Clayton Kershaw as a late-innings bullpen arm. The three-time Cy Young winner, who had recently announced his retirement after this season, delivered a clean ninth inning in the Dodgers’ 5-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

He retired three straight batters he faced to send the game into extra innings. Watching him turn from an ace to a reliever assured one thing that Kershaw can dominate at both ends of a game. It’s hard to believe that it was his first relief appearance this season after 21 starts. In the postgame availability, he admitted his motive behind agreeing to serve as a reliever. “I guess once it came up it wasn’t really a the plan to begin with for me,” Kershaw said.

Kershaw was also asked if the bullpen role was something he wanted to experience before October, just to kind of get the feel. But you know, I didn’t want to sit here for nine days so you know, I had a lot of time off, and throwing one inning will help me get ready for Sunday, and if I can help out, that’s great.” He said. Unlike the starting rotation, the Dodgers’ bullpen is in full disarray.

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For context, in the list of the worst bullpen ERAs since the Dodgers moved to L.A., this year’s bullpen is the 6th worst in the list 68, with an ERA of 4.28. That’s pretty bad.  Therefore, Kershaw’s reintroduction in the bullpen could potentially turn out to be a masterstroke by Dave Roberts, especially in the postseason.

To further strengthen the Bullpen, Roberts can even turn to Roki Sasaki.

The Dodgers could use Clayton Kershaw and Roki Sasaki as relievers in the postseason

For Clayton Kershaw and Roki Sasaki, the bullpen is the most likely path to make the cut for the Dodgers’ postseason roster.  Wednesday marked Roki Sasaki’s first relief outing since May. Despite limited experience, he tossed a scoreless inning after recovering from a four-month shoulder injury. On six out of seven fastballs, Sasaki had hit with 99 mph velocity.

Credit: MLB.com

This was also Kershaw’s first relief appearance after 21 starts this season, and he did his job perfectly, sending the game into extra innings. “It’s an adrenaline rush for sure,” Kershaw said. “Relieving is just a different animal altogether. You’ve got to figure out how to maintain your heartbeat and get going, but it’s a lot of fun, and it’s fun to have success out there.”

Since the second half of the season, the reigning World Series champions have had an MLB-worst 13 blown saves, including Wednesday night. It was when the Diamondbacks rallied for three runs off Alex Vesia and Edgardo Henriquez in the eighth inning.

Two innings later, Jack Dreyer and Blake Treinen wriggled out of a jam. And by the eleventh inning, Justin Wrobleski closed the game after Tommy Edman put his team in front with an RBI single. Since conventional relievers have faltered time and again, the Dodgers need to decide in less than a week.

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