LOS ANGELES — Clayton Kershaw will make the final regular-season start of his career on Friday night at Dodger Stadium after announcing his intent to retire after the 2025 season. His opponent, appropriately enough, will be the Giants, a team he has faced — and dominated — more than any other in his career.
“I’m at peace with it,” the 37-year-old Kershaw said in a news conference on Thursday. “I think it’s the right time. It’s been such a fun year. I’ve had such a blast with this group. I’ve had such a blast with all you guys. So yeah, I can’t think of a better season to go out.”
“It’s a miraculous career,” said manager Bob Melvin said of Kershaw, who has a 2.08 ERA with 415 strikeouts over 62 games against San Francisco. “It’s kind of apropos that he’s pitching his last regular-season game against the Giants here. It’ll be pretty spirited here. An incredible career. It feels like he’s had three careers.”
Melvin has had the opportunity to see the evolution of Kershaw. In 2008, Melvin got his first look at a 20-year-old Kershaw in the infancy of his career as the manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. On Sept. 7, 2008, Kershaw famously faced fellow rookie Max Scherzer when Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux were both scratched.
Following his time in Arizona, Melvin spent the majority of Kershaw’s prime in the American League managing the Oakland A’s (Kershaw has a career 1.34 ERA against the Athletics). Over the last four years, Melvin has shared a division with Kershaw while managing the Giants and San Diego Padres.
“He threw a little bit harder then,” Melvin said. “He’s adjusted year-to-year in what he does, but it’s really the competitive spirit that sticks out with guys like that. Their will to win and their expectation for themselves to be able to pitch this long and this well. He’s been doing it for a long time. He was doing it in Arizona back then and he’s doing it now. It’s pretty incredible to see what he’s doing.”
“I remember when he came up, he was a two-pitch guy: four-seam and curveball,” said hitting coach Pat Burrell on Sunday, prior to the announcement. “He really struggled to throw his changeup. He didn’t have the slider back then. We saw the evolution of what he became when the slider came in. When it did, it elevated him to one of the best that we’ve seen.”
Starting opposite of Kershaw on Friday will be fellow left-hander Robbie Ray, who has two head-to-head battles with Kershaw dating back to his time with the Diamondbacks.
In their first meeting on Sept. 24, 2018, Kershaw earned a win after allowing three runs over six innings with six strikeouts, while Ray had a no-decision after allowing two runs over five innings with seven strikeouts. Ray picked up a win and Kershaw was handed a loss in their second meeting on Aug. 31, 2019, though both starters combined to allow nine runs over 10 innings.
Before the implementation of the universal DH, Kershaw picked up a hit off Ray, flipping a middle-middle fastball into left field for a single.
“In my mind — and probably everybody else’s — a first-ballot Hall of Famer,” said Ray, who played catch with Kershaw when he went to his first All-Star Game in 2017. “To be able to compete against him for so long, especially being in the West for as long as it was, and to see his career and what he’s accomplished is pretty cool.”
For all of Friday’s expected pomp and circumstance, Ray iterated the necessity of focusing on the task at hand.
The Giants (76-76) aren’t just 2.5 games back of the New York Mets for the third and final NL wild card, but they’re also behind the Cincinnati Reds (76-76) and Arizona Diamondbacks (77-76) in the standings. With their playoff hopes nearing zero, the Giants need Ray to rebound from his recent struggles (7.83 ERA over last five starts) and put up zeros.
“You try not to make too much of it. … These are big games that we’re playing, so just try to keep it alI in perspective, for sure,” Ray said.
Kershaw’s announcement to retire comes just a day after Justin Verlander — five years his elder — re-affirmed his intent to pitch next season.
Verlander, 42, has long said he wants to pitch until he’s 45, but the right-hander’s struggles over the first four months of the season put those plans in jeopardy. Verlander’s recent stretch of excellence, then, has effectively guaranteed he will have a spot on a major-league roster in 2026.
Over his last 11 starts, Verlander owns a 2.17 ERA over 62 1/3 innings with 60 strikeouts, pitching his best when the Giants have needed it most. With seven shutout innings on Wednesday, Verlander joined Roger Clemens as the only pitchers 42 or older to allow fewer than one run over four straight starts in the last 125 years, per Sarah Langs.
“I would hope that somebody would offer me a contract now,” Verlander said on Wednesday. “I’ve shown that I can turn it around and still pitch at a high level.”
Whether Verlander re-ups with San Francisco, specifically, is another matter entirely. Despite his efforts, Verlander has made minimal progress in his quest for 300 career wins.
Verlander, who won’t pitch in this series, entered the season with 262 victories on his résumé. With a week-and-a-half remaining in the regular season, Verlander’s career total only stands at 265 after he’s seen numerous victories fall by the wayside due to offensive shortcomings or bullpen blowups.
“There could be at least five or six more under his belt, for sure,” Melvin said. “That’s not even an exaggeration.”