The Dodgers are missing four-fifths of their starting rotation. The bullpen has one of baseball's highest ERAs. But the constant over the past 15 years, the three-time Cy Young winner, is keeping L.A.'s season alive.
Key high-leverage relievers have struggled and developing starting-pitching prospects have been counted on more heavily than expected. Kershaw has acted as one of few constants, making every start while trending toward his 10th All-Star Game.
Kershaw's seven scoreless innings against the Angels dropped his ERA to 2.72, a mark topped by only six qualified pitchers. It represented the sixth time he had recorded 21 outs this season. The rest of the Dodgers' staff has combined for only three such outings. He's 35, midway through his 16th season with a franchise that has turned over multiple times since he started, and yet he's anchoring a staff that is barely hanging on around him.
It has been eight years since Kershaw made at least 30 starts and accumulated at least 180 innings in a regular season. In the time since, from 2016 to 2022, he made 10 trips to the IL, half of them related to his back, and slowly realized changes were necessary. To persist, one of the most famously intense, routine-oriented pitchers in recent memory needed to alter and reduce his workload between starts. It wasn't easy.
Over these past couple of years, though, Kershaw has begun to throw fewer pitches in his bullpen sessions and throw less weight around in his workouts. Under the guidance of the Dodgers' training staff, he has also focused on creating more range of motion with his hips to take pressure off his troublesome back. Kershaw said his hips are "moving better than they have in a long time."
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