Clayton Kershaw soaks in the applause in his last regular-season start at Dodger Stadium
LOS ANGELES AP Clayton Kershaw pitched the final regular-season home competition of his -year career with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday welcomed and sent off with standing ovations a day after announcing his decision to retire at season s end Kershaw s longtime warmup song We Are Young by Fun blared as fans held up camera phones to capture the moment as the competition began The cheers hastily turned to boos when San Francisco Giants leadoff hitter Heliot Ramos turned on an -mph slider for a -foot home run But the cheers returned after Rafael Devers took a called third strike leading off the fifth Manager Dave Roberts came to the mound and hugged Kershaw as his teammates on the field in the dugout and in the bullpen joined the sellout crowd of in applauding the -year-old left-hander as he departed Kershaw left with the Dodgers trailing - He gave up two runs and four hits struck out six and walked four in innings on pitches for strikes The defending World Series champion Dodgers rallied for a - preeminence to clinch their th consecutive postseason berth He waved and then wrapped his arms around himself in a hug gesture to the crowd Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani stepped forward to hug Kershaw one of plenty of he received from everyone in the dugout With fans clamoring Kershaw came out for a curtain call slowly turning around and soaking in the scene Fans donned No jerseys in a salute to Kershaw although Ohtani s No was prominent as usual Kershaw was surrounded by teammates his pregnant wife Ellen who was in tears their four children and fans who ve watched him work his way through the Dodgers farm system to reach the majors at age and go on to win three Cy Young Awards as well as two World Series championships Also on hand were former teammate Russell Martin who caught Kershaw s major league debut in and Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford who was Kershaw s high school football teammate in Texas This is one of those moments that people are going to look back and go I was there for the last time he started a home competition at Dodger Stadium Roberts commented before the competition Kershaw a Dallas native who lives there in the offseason has spent his entire -year career in Los Angeles In a world that people take the easy way out chase short money the grass is greener kind of adage the loyalty part of it is just not what it used to be Roberts mentioned Clayton lives by those values and it means something for him to wear the same uniform That s where I gained a lot of respect for him Among Kershaw s milestone moments in the city was reaching career strikeouts in July The Dodgers added a Kershaw bobblehead to their promotional schedule in July after he reached the milestone and the item will be given out Saturday He will address the fans before Sunday s championship Everybody who is just a fan is going to wrap their arms around Clayton Kershaw teammate Freddie Freeman noted He deserves everything he s going to get from the fans While his velocity has dipped in latest years Kershaw s famed competitive fire still burns brightly Winning is invariably my favorite thing he disclosed Kershaw has battled injuries in latest years that made getting to this point all the harder He missed the entire postseason last year when the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in the World Series Not a lot of people get this opportunity he announced so I m just super grateful for it Roberts reported it was too early to say whether Kershaw would make another start next week when the Dodgers visit Arizona and Seattle to conclude the regular season This story has been updated to correct that this will be Kershaw s last home start in the regular season not his last regular-season start overall AP MLB https apnews com MLB Source
