Clayton Kershaw

The celebration had hardly begun, when Shohei Ohtani first voiced the theme of the day.

“I’m already thinking about the third time,” he said in Japanese, standing atop a double-decker bus in downtown Los Angeles with of thousands of blue-clad, flag-waving, championship-celebrating Dodgers fans lining the streets around him for the team’s 2025 World Series parade.

Turns out, he wasn’t alone.

Two days removed from a dramatic Game 7 victory that made the Dodgers baseball’s first repeat champion in 25 years, the team rolled through the streets of downtown and into a sold-out rally at Dodger Stadium on Monday already thinking about what lies ahead in 2026.

With three titles in the last six seasons, their modern-day dynasty might now be cemented.

But their goal of adding to this “golden era of Dodger baseball,” as top executive Andrew Friedman has repeatedly called it, is far from over.

“All I have to say to you,” owner and chairman Mark Walter told the 52,703 fans at the team’s stadium rally, “is we’ll be back next year.”

“I have a crazy idea for you,” Friedman echoed. “How about we do it again?”

When manager Dave Roberts took the mic, he tripled down on that objective: “What’s better than two? Three! Three-peat! Three-peat! Let’s go.”

When shortstop Mookie Betts, the only active player with four World Series rings, followed him, he quadrupled the expectation: “I got four. Now it’s time to fill the hand all the way up, baby. ‘Three-peat’ ain’t never sounded so sweet. Somebody make that a T-shirt.”

For these history-achieving, legacy-sealing Dodgers, Monday was a reminder of the ultimate end goal — the kind of scene that, as they embark on another short winter, will soon fuel their motivations for another confetti-filled parade this time next year.

“For me, winning a championship, the seminal moment of that is the parade,” Friedman said. “The jubilation of doing it, when you get the final out, whatever game you win it in, is special. That night is special. But to be able to take a breath and then experience a parade, in my mind, that is what has always driven me to want to win.”

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“[To] do this for the city, that’s what it’s all about,” first baseman Freddie Freeman added. “There’s nothing that feels as important as winning a championship. And if so happens to be three in a row, that’s what it is. But that’s what’s gonna drive us to keep going.”

Last November, the Dodgers’ first parade in 36 years was a novelty.

Much of the group had been part of the 2020 title team that was denied such a serenade following that pandemic-altered campaign. They had waited four long years to experience a city-wide celebration. The reception they received was sentimental and unique.

Now, as third baseman Max Muncy said with a devious grin from atop a makeshift stage in the Dodger Stadium outfield, “it’s starting to get a little bit comfortable up here. Let’s keep it going.”

“Losing,” star pitcher and World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto added, in English, in a callback to one of his memorable quotes from this past October, “isn’t an option.”

Doing it won’t be easy.

This year, the Dodgers’ win total went down to 93 in an inconsistent regular season. They had to play in the wild-card round for the first time since the playoffs expanded in 2022. And in the World Series, they faced elimination in Games 6 and 7, narrowly winning both to complete their quest to repeat.

“I borderline still can’t believe we won Game 7,” fan favorite Kiké Hernández said in a bus-top interview.

But, he quickly added, “We’re all winners. Winners win.”

Thus, they also get celebrations like Monday’s.

As it was 367 days earlier, the Dodgers winded down a parade route in front of tens of thousands of fans from Temple Street to Grand Avenue to 7th Street to Figueroa. Both on board the double-decker buses and in the frenzied masses below, elation swirled and beverages flowed.

Once the team arrived at Dodger Stadium, it climbed atop a blue circular riser in the middle of the field — the final symbolic steps of their ascent back to the mountaintop of the sport.

Anthony Anderson introduced them to the crowd, while Ice Cube delivered the trophy in a blue 1957 Chevy Bel-Air.

Familiar scenes, they are hoping become an annual tradition.

“Job in 2024, done. Job in 2025, done,” Freeman said. “Job in 2026? Starts now.”

The Dodgers did take time to recognize their newfound place in baseball history, having become just the sixth MLB franchise to win three titles in the span of six years and the first since the New York Yankees of 1998 to 2000 to win in consecutive years.

Where last year’s parade day felt more like an overdue coronation, this one served to crystallize their legacy.

“Everybody’s been asking questions about a dynasty,” Hernández said. “How about three in six years? How about a back-to-back?”

And, on Monday, all the main characters of this storybook accomplishment got their moment in the sun.

There was, as team broadcaster and rally emcee Joe Davis described him, “the Hall of Fame-bound” Roberts, who now only trails Walter Alston in team history with three World Series rings.

“We talked about last year, wanting to run it back,” he said. “And I’ll tell you right now, this group of guys was never gonna be denied to bring this city another championship.”

There was Game 7 hero Miguel Rojas calling up surprise October closer Roki Sasaki, on his birthday, to dance to his “Bailalo Rocky” entrance song; a request Sasaki sheepishly obliged by pumping his fist to the beat.

Yamamoto, coming off his heroic pitching victories in Games 6 and 7, received some of the day’s loudest ovations.

“We did it together,” he said. “I love the Dodgers. I love Los Angeles.”

Muncy, Ohtani and Blake Snell also all addressed the crowd.

“I’m trying to get used to this,” Snell said.

“I’m ready to get another ring next year,” Ohtani reiterated.

One franchise face who won’t be back for that chase: Clayton Kershaw, who rode into the sunset of retirement by getting one last day at Dodger Stadium, fighting back tears as he thanked the crowd at the end of his illustrious (and also Hall of Fame-bound) 18-year career.

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“Last year, I said I was a Dodger for life. And today, that’s true,” Kershaw said. “And today, I get to say that I’m a champion for life. And that’s never going away.”

Kershaw, of course, is one of the few still around from the club’s dark days of the early 2010s, when money was scarce and playoff appearances were uncertain and parades were only things to dream about — not expect.

As he walks away, however, the team has been totally transformed.

Now, the Dodgers have been to 13 straight postseasons. They’ve set payroll records and bolstered their roster with a wave of star signings. They’ve turned the pursuit of championships into a yearly expectation, proud but unsatisfied with what they’ve achieved to this point.

“I think, definitionally, it’s a dynasty,” said Friedman, the architect of this run with the help of Walter’s deep-pocketed Guggenheim ownership group. “But that to me, in a lot of ways, that kind of caps it if you say, ‘OK, this is what it is.’ For me, it’s still evolving and growing. We want to add to it. We want to continue it, and do everything we can to put it at a level where people after us have a hard time reaching.”

On Monday, they raised that bar another notch higher.

“This parade was the most insane thing I’ve ever witnessed, been a part of,” Kershaw said. “It truly is the most incredible day ever to be able to end your career on.”

On Tuesday, the Dodgers’ long road toward holding another one begins.

“I know they’re gonna get one more next year,” Kershaw told the crowd. “And I’m gonna watch, just like all of you.”

TORONTO — As soon as Blake Treinen entered for the ninth inning of Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night, Clayton Kershaw dropped his guard and began to look around.

For the previous three hours, the future Hall of Fame pitcher had been locked in on the game, mentally preparing for a potential relief appearance from out in the bullpen.

But when that didn’t come, the 37-year-old Kershaw then let himself relax, took in the scene of an October night at Chavez Ravine, and soaked up the final moments of what was his final game ever at Dodger Stadium.

“It’s a weird thought, of like, ‘This is your last game ever there,’” said Kershaw, who announced last month he will retire at the end of this season. “And not a sad thought. Honestly, just a grateful thought. Just like, ‘Man, we spent a lot of great times here.’”

Win or lose in Games 6 and 7 of this World Series, Kershaw’s overall career will end this weekend at Rogers Centre in Toronto. But on Wednesday night, he closed the book on the ballpark he has called home for all 18 seasons of his illustrious MLB career.

Dodger Stadium is where Kershaw first made his big-league debut back in May 2008, as a highly anticipated left-handed prospect with a big curveball and quiet demeanor. It was the stage for his rise to stardom over the nearly two decades that followed, as he went on to capture three Cy Young Awards, 2014 National League MVP honors and a career 2.53 ERA that ranks as the best among pitchers with 1,000 innings in the live ball era.

It is where he experienced some of the most defining moments of his career, including a no-hitter in 2014 and his 3,000th strikeout earlier this year. It’s also where he suffered repeated October disappointments, none bigger than the back-to-back home runs he gave up in Game 5 of the 2019 National League Division Series.

In other words, it was always home for Kershaw, the place he would return to day after day, year after year, season after season — no matter the highs or lows, aches and pains, successes or failures.

“I just started thinking about it when the game ended,” said Kershaw, who elected to traverse the field to get back to the clubhouse after Wednesday’s game instead of the connected bullpen tunnel. “I was like, ‘Man, I might as well walk across this thing one more time.’”

About an hour later, Kershaw would linger on the field a little longer, joined for an impromptu gathering by his wife, Ellen; their four children; and other family and friends in attendance for his last home game.

“Ellen just texted after and was like, ‘Hey, we got a big crew,’” Kershaw said. “So I was, ‘Well, just go to the field. I’ll try to shower fast so we can hang out.’”

Television cameras caught Kershaw laughing as his kids ran the bases, tried to throw baseballs at a hovering drone and enjoyed a diamond that had become their own personal childhood playground over the years.

At one point, Kershaw posed with the Dodger Stadium grounds crew for a picture — standing on a mound they had manicured for all of his 228 career starts in the stadium.

“Honestly, it was awesome,” Kershaw said. “It was the perfect way to do it. Just have everybody out there, running around … It was unplanned, unprompted, but a great memory.”

Kershaw, of course, is hoping to add one more Dodger Stadium memory next week. If the team can reverse its three-games-to-two deficit in the World Series this weekend in Toronto, it would return to Chavez Ravine for a championship celebration.

If not, though, he’ll have a couple parting moments to cherish, from Wednesday’s postgame scene down on the field, to his final career Dodger Stadium outing back in Game 4 in which he stranded the bases loaded in the 12th for one of the biggest outs in his entire career.

“I’m super grateful with how that went, as opposed to the last time before that,” he quipped, having given up five runs in his only other Dodger Stadium appearance this postseason. “You can’t plan any of that stuff. Who knows if it ever works out. But yeah, to get that one last out was pretty cool.”

So, too, was his one last night Wednesday.

TORONTO — Who would have guessed?

Who would have guessed that in a starting rotation of giants and alphas, the most important pitcher would be the diminutive 27 year old with the mischievous smile who plays the role of everyone’s little brother?

From a distance, Yoshinobu Yamamoto doesn’t look like someone who figures to contend in the coming years to be the best pitcher in the world.

He stands only 5-foot-10. He’s not mean in the way frontline starters sometimes are. He’s extremely considerate of others, even people who offer minimal, if any, transactional value — or more precisely, his focus and confidence in his work don’t blind him to their sensitivities.

Beneath the mask of normality, however, there is something in Yamamoto capable of fueling the kind of complete-game performance he delivered in the Dodgers’ 5-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 2 of the World Series.

Yamamoto wants to be great. Or perhaps he has to be.

Look, and you will see it. Listen, and you will hear it.

Yamamoto has often shared his admiration of Clayton Kershaw, but it’s clear he doesn’t see him as just a mentor. He sees him as a benchmark by which should measure himself.

When Kershaw announced his retirement last month, Yamamoto spoke of how grateful he was to play alongside him for two years. He talked about how much he learned from him. What was particularly interesting was what he said after.

“I think from my heart that I want to be an ace pitcher like Kershaw,” Yamamoto said in Japanese, “and I want to do my best to one day surpass my great senior.”

Kershaw has 223 career victories. He won a most valuable player award. He won three Cy Young Awards.

Not only does Yamamoto want to be better than Kershaw, he’s bold enough to state that ambition publicly.

Yamamoto did something Kershaw never did against the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series by pitching a complete game in the postseason.

Eleven days later, he did it again, this time against the Blue Jays in the World Series.

The last pitcher to throw a complete game in a World Series was Johnny Cueto, and he did it 10 years ago. The last pitcher to throw consecutive complete games in the postseason was Curt Schilling, and he did it 24 years ago.

Yamamoto was the Dodgers’ most dependable starter in the regular season. As a second-year major leaguer, he made a team-high 30 starts, posting a 12-8 record with a 2.49 earned-run average.

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto reacts to recording a strikeout to close out the first inning of Game 2 of the World Series on Saturday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

His game has reached another level in the postseason, and in doing so, he might have saved the Dodgers, who were in trouble after Blake Snell’s implosion resulted in a loss in the opening game of this World Series

“I felt we had to win today no matter what,” Yamamoto said.

With his 105-pitch masterpiece, Yamamoto spared manager Dave Roberts the unpleasant duty of opening the gates to hell — pardon me, the bullpen — and tied the series at one game apiece. The next three games will be played at Dodger Stadium.

The historic performance by Yamamoto had an ominous start, as George Springer led off in the first inning with a double and advanced to third base on a single by Nathan Lukes.

Yamamoto escaped the jam by retiring Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Alejandro Kirk and Daulton Varsho in order, but his pitch count was already at 23.

“I didn’t think I could get to the end,” Yamamoto said.

The ever-optimistic Roberts was hopeful Yamamoto could complete six innings, which would task the bullpen with covering the last three. Roberts never had to prepare the smoke and mirrors required to navigate the final third of the game. Yamamoto gave up a run in the third inning but retired the last 20 batters he faced.

How he pitched reflected the reality of the Dodgers’ bullpen situation — essentially, that converted starter Roki Sasaki was the only reliever who could be trusted. Midway through the game, Yamamoto started throwing cutters, which induced contact and limited his pitch count.

“Fundamentally, my pitching style is to throw as much as I can in the strike zone,” Yamamoto said. “It’s a style in which I aim in the strike zone and throw with as much effort as I can.”

Before this postseason, the last time Yamamoto pitched a complete game was in 2023, for the Orix Buffaloes of the Japanese league.

So when Yamamoto recorded the final out of his start against the Brewers, he forgot his custom of embracing the catcher.

“It had been so long, I didn’t know where to go,” he said.

On Saturday, he knew, walking toward home plate and clasping hands with Will Smith. The guess here is that he won’t forget again. If he doesn’t pitch another complete game in these playoffs, he figures to pitch a few of them over the next handful of seasons.

He wants more.

If Wednesday’s game proves to be the last one in a Dodgers uniform for Clayton Kershaw, it will do little to tarnish his legacy, said teammate Mookie Betts.

“He’s gonna have a statue, so we have to kind of keep that in mind,” Betts said. “In the grand scheme of things, Kershaw is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, one of the best pitchers to ever do it.

“So if you let two innings kind of ruin that, then you don’t know baseball.”

But, Betts confessed, Kershaw’s relief appearance in Game 3 of the National League Division Series was hard to watch. In those two innings he gave up six hits, five runs, walked three and did not strike out a hitter, turning a tight game into an 8-2 rout for the Philadelphia Phillies, who staved off elimination and extended the best-of-five series to a fourth game Thursday.

“He just didn’t have a great slider tonight,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Clayton pitches off his slider. He was working behind, too. The command wasn’t there tonight.”

Clayton Kershaw bends over during a tough eighth inning.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Kershaw, who went 11-2 as a starter during the regular season, was left off the roster for the wild-card series and hadn’t pitched in nine days when he started warming up in the sixth inning Wednesday. He hadn’t gone that long between appearances all year.

“I did everything I could in between,” he said. “It’s been a while but, you know, I threw [off] flat ground as best I could. It wasn’t there tonight.”

That was obvious from the first batter he faced. Kershaw, who walked a batter every 3.2 innings during the regular season, threw three straight balls to Trea Turner before giving up a single. He would give up two more walks, one intentional, in the inning but escaped harm thanks to a poor baserunning decision by the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber and a nice catch by right fielder Teoscar Hernández.

But with Tanner Scott unavailable for personal reasons and Alex Vesia having already pitched twice in the series, Roberts had few other good options against the left-handed-heavy Phillies. So he sent Kershaw out for the eighth and that’s when things really got out of hand.

J.T. Realmuto led off the inning and drove Kershaw’s second pitch — a slider — over the wall in left-center. The Phillies would send eight more men to the plate in the inning, scoring four more times, with two of those runs coming on Schwarber’s second homer of the night.

Kershaw threw first-pitch strikes to just four of the 14 batters he faced and missed the zone with 26 of the 48 pitches he threw overall. That won’t stop the Dodgers from building a statue of him when he retires this fall but it didn’t move him any closer to a second straight World Series ring either.

“I wasn’t throwing strikes, and it’s hard to pitch behind in the count,” he said.

Kershaw said he felt fine physically but added, “I just wasn’t finding it.”

That wasn’t a problem for the top of the Philadelphia lineup, which found little success in the first two games of the series. The Phillies’ first four hitters — Turner, Schwarber, Bryce Harper and Alex Bohm combined for just three hits, all singles — in 27 at-bats, striking out 12 times. They matched that hit total against Dodger starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the span of 11 fourth-inning pitches Wednesday, with Schwarber homering off the roof of the right-field pavilion and Harper and Bohm following with singles.

They finished the night nine for 16 with five runs scored and five RBIs, with Schwarber’s two homers traveling a combined 863 feet.

“We just had a little quick meeting. Nothing crazy, but just focus on the game, win today,” Turner said. “We all know we were kind of pressing as a group in the first two games and wanting to win so bad.”

If Turner and the Phillies win again Thursday, the series returns to Philadelphia and raucous Citizens Bank Park — where the Phillies had the best home record in baseball — for a decisive Game 5 on Saturday. If the Dodgers win, they move on to the NL Championship Series, where Kershaw could get a chance to end his career on a more sonorous note than the clunker he played Wednesday.

“That’s the great thing about baseball,” he said. “You get a new game every day.”

PHILADELPHIA — When Clayton Kershaw was left off the Dodgers’ roster for the best-of-three wild card round against the Cincinnati Reds, it marked the first time since his 2008 rookie season that he pitch didn’t in one of the team’s playoff series when healthy.

But on Saturday, ahead of Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Dodgers decided to add Kershaw back in the mix, ensuring he will likely get the chance to take the mound at least one more time before entering retirement this offseason.

Kershaw and fellow left-handed pitcher Anthony Banda were the only two changes the Dodgers made to their NLDS roster Saturday, swapping them in on an 11-man pitching staff in place of multi-inning left-hander Justin Wrobleski (who didn’t pitch in the wild card series) and rookie right-hander Edgardo Henriquez (who walked two batters and gave up a hit while recording no outs in Game 1 against the Reds).

The Dodgers made no changes to their 15-man position player group from the wild card round, once again keeping three catchers on the roster (as Will Smith continues to recover from a fractured hand) as well as speedy defensive specialists Justin Deal and Hyeseong Kim.

Kershaw’s return was had been expected, even before manager Dave Roberts officially confirmed on Friday that the future Hall of Famer would be on the roster for the NLDS.

First and foremost, the Dodgers will need added left-handed pitching depth to combat a Phillies lineup that includes left-handed threats like Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Brandon Marsh and Bryson Stott. That’s why Banda was included as well.

But Kershaw, who went 11-2 this season with a 3.36 ERA, also gives the Dodgers a steady veteran presence out of the bullpen (where he is expected to pitch).

They missed that in the wild-card round, when a string of younger pitchers struggled to consistently find the strike zone while pitching in relief.

Thus, they will be hoping their 18-year veteran can provide it, in what would be his final career postseason series if the Dodgers don’t advance.

The only other major roster question facing the Dodgers entering this series is at catcher. Roberts said Friday that Smith “will be available to catch” in this NLDS, but was unsure if he’d be able to start right away in Game 1. Smith, who has taken only live at-bats in the last week while nursing his injury, did not appear in the wild-card series despite being on the roster. He took more live at-bats during the team’s Friday night workout at Citizens Bank Park.

SEATTLE — It was one last batter. One last strikeout. One last ovation for a future Hall of Famer.

And it ended, fittingly, on a helplessly empty swing.

In the top of the sixth inning on Sunday afternoon, in the final regular-season outing of his illustrious 18-year career, Clayton Kershaw snapped off a trademark slider that ducked below the zone. Eugenio Suárez waved at it for a strikeout like so many countless others before him.

With that, Kershaw had his seventh strikeout of the day and the 3,052nd of his career. He had completed 5 ⅓ scoreless innings, lowering his career ERA to 2.53 — the best among any starting pitcher with 1,000 career innings in the live ball era (since 1920).

In the dugout, manager Dave Roberts motioned to fellow veteran Freddie Freeman, sending the first baseman out to the mound to remove Kershaw from his last career start.

When he got there, the two exchanged an embrace, Kershaw hugged the rest of his infield teammates, and then he acknowledged a cheering T-Mobile Park crowd as he walked back to the dugout.

He donned his cap, waved his arm and disappeared down the stairs — for perhaps the very last time.

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw embraces his teammates as he gets lifted from Sunday’s game against the Seattle Mariners.

(John Froschauer / Associated Press)

If Kershaw is to take the mound again before retirement this winter, the Dodgers will have to advance through the first round of the playoffs.

Ahead of his scoreless 5 ⅓ inning start in the Dodgers’ 6-1 win against the Seattle Mariners in Sunday’s regular-season finale, Roberts said Kershaw would not be on the team’s roster for next week’s best-of-three wild card series against the Cincinnati Reds.

The decision isn’t shocking. Kershaw was not going to feature in the starting rotation for the series. And though he could have been an option in the bullpen, the Dodgers already have an abundance of left-handed relievers.

Thus, the Dodgers (who finished the season 93-69) will have to reach at least the National League Division Series for Kershaw to pitch in a major league game again. Roberts noted that, if the team does advance, Kershaw could be an option in any capacity.

“You just don’t know how things are gonna play out,” Roberts said. “I can see him starting a game. I can see him coming in for a short burst. I can see him in long relief. I can see him in a lot of ways. I don’t think anyone can predict how that’s gonna play out. We gotta get through the wild card series, and see who’s standing after that.”

If this is the end of the line for Kershaw, he is going out on his own terms.

After being limited by injuries for much of the past three seasons — including missing all of last year’s World Series run with toe and knee injuries that ultimately required offseason surgery — the 37-year-old decided to return to the Dodgers this season for one last crack at a championship chase.

He wound up turning in one of his most impactful performances.

Though Kershaw’s 11-2 record and 3.36 ERA are no career highs, his ability to consistently produce over 23 outings this season (including a ninth-inning appearance as a reliever last week) proved to be invaluable for the Dodgers. He was a steady veteran presence early in the year, when the team was battling a wave of rotation injuries. He was a losing-skid stopper on multiple occasions over the second half, when the team nearly squandered a division lead that once was nine games.

“I don’t think we’d have won the division,” Roberts said, when asked where the team would have been without Kershaw this season.

“He delivered 10 times over for us.”

Roberts acknowledged that Kershaw exceeded all of his expectations for the aging pitcher this season. He relished watching the all-time Dodgers icon write one last memorable chapter to his legendary, record-setting MLB career.

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw and catcher Ben Rortvedt, center left, walk to the dugout after working the fifth inning against the Seattle Mariners.

(John Froschauer / Associated Press)

“He doesn’t want handouts, he doesn’t want freebies, he doesn’t want to be a token,” Roberts said. “He was a big part of what we accomplished this year.”

And, if the Dodgers can get through this week’s wild-card series, he still might be at some point in the playoffs as well.

Ohtani sets career, club HR mark

A year after breaking the Dodgers’ single-season home run record with a career-high 54 long balls last season, Shohei Ohtani reset the high mark once again Sunday.

After two-run home runs from Hyeseong Kim and Freeman early in the game, Ohtani extended the Dodgers’ lead with a solo blast to center field in the seventh. It was his 55th homer of the year, leaving him one shy of Kyle Schwarber for most in the NL.

PHOENIX — The Dodgers might’ve finally found an answer to their long-maddening bullpen problems.

Just use some starters.

In a 5-4 extra-innings win over the Arizona Diamondbacks that lowered their magic number to clinch the National League West to one, the Dodgers again squandered a late-game lead when their traditional relievers faltered. They still didn’t make winning look as simple as it should have.

But win, they did on this night — thanks in large part to two scoreless innings of relief from Roki Sasaki and Clayton Kershaw.

The game wasn’t decided until the 11th inning, when Tommy Edman gave the Dodgers a lead they finally wouldn’t relinquish.

It never would’ve gotten there, however, without the contributions of Sasaki and Kershaw out of the bullpen.

Activated from the injured list shortly before the game, and making his first appearance in the majors since suffering a shoulder injury in early May, Sasaki flashed promising signs with a scoreless frame in the bottom of the seventh, protecting a 3-1 lead the team had been staked to by Blake Snell’s six-inning, one-run start, and an early offensive outburst that included a two-run homer from Andy Pages.

Sasaki’s fastball averaged 98-99 mph, was located with precision on the corners of the strike zone, and even induced a couple of swing-and-misses, things he never did consistently while posting a 4.72 ERA in eight starts at the beginning of the season.

He paired it with a trademark splitter that was also commanded with more precision than at any point in his initial MLB stint.

Sasaki needed only 13 pitches to retire the side in order, punctuating his outing with a pair of strikeouts on 99-mph four-seamers. As he walked back to the dugout, he glanced toward his teammates with a stoic glare. Just about all of them, including Shohei Ohtani, applauded in approval.

Disaster did strike in the eighth, after the Dodgers extended their lead to 4-1 on Teoscar Hernández’s RBI double in the top half of the inning.

The bullpen’s one season-long stalwart, Alex Vesia, ran into trouble by giving up a single to Ketel Marte, a walk to Geraldo Perdomo, and an RBI double to Corbin Carroll — all with one out.

Hard-throwing rookie righty Edgardo Henriquez couldn’t put out the fire from there, giving up one run on a swinging bunt from Gabriel Moreno in front of the plate that spun away from catcher Ben Rortvedt, then another when pinch-hitter Adrian Del Castillo stayed alive on a generous two-strike call (which was no doubt impacted by Rortvedt dropping the pitch behind the plate) before lifting a sacrifice fly to center.

For the second straight night, a late-game three-run lead had evaporated into thin air.

This time, however, manager Dave Roberts had a new card to play. A night after Kershaw volunteered to pitch in relief, the future Hall of Fame left-hander was summoned for the ninth inning.

In what was his first relief appearance since the infamous fifth game of the 2019 NL Division Series, Kershaw was effective. He retired the side in order with the help of a diving catch from Tommy Edman in center. He looked comfortable in the kind of high-leverage relief role the Dodgers might need him to fill come October.

In extras, the rest of the bullpen finally held up. Blake Treinen inherited a bases-loaded jam with two out in the 10th, but got James McCann to fly out to shallow right field. Justin Wrobleski (another pitcher who began this season as a starter) was handed a save situation in the 11th, after Edman singled home a run with his third hit of the night, and retired all three batters he faced.

As Dodgers players packed in for Clayton Kershaw’s retirement news conference last Thursday, Freddie Freeman waved the Kershaw family to a row of seats at the front of the room.

He wanted Kershaw’s wife, Ellen, and their four kids in front of the pitcher right when he sat down at the dais at Dodger Stadium.

How else, Freeman joked, could they get the future Hall of Famer to cry?

Turned out, in a 14-minute address announcing his retirement from baseball at the end of this season, Kershaw did get choked up from behind the mic. But, it happened first when he addressed his teammates. They, he told him, were who he was going to miss most.

“The hardest one is the teammates, so I’m not even going to look at you guys in the eye,” Kershaw said, his eyes quickly turning red. “Just you guys sitting in this room, you mean so much to me. We have so much fun. I’m going to miss it.”

“The game in and of itself, I’m going to miss a lot, but I’ll be OK without that,” he later added. “I think the hard part is the feeling after a win, celebrating with you guys. That’s pretty special.”

Days later, that message continues to reverberate.

For the Dodgers, it served as a reminder and a reset.

Ever since early July, the team had lived in a world blanketed by frustration and wracked with repeated misery. Many players were hurt or uncharacteristically slumping. The team as a whole endured an extended sub-.500 skid. Behind inconsistent offense and unreliable bullpen pitching, a big division lead dwindled. Visions of 120-win grandeur were meekly dashed.

Amid that slump, the club’s focus drifted. From team production to individual mechanics. From collective urgency to internal dissatisfaction.

“Everyone on this team has been so busy this year trying to perfect their craft,” third baseman Max Muncy said, “that sometimes we forget about that moment of just hanging out and enjoying what we’re going through. “

Or, as Kershaw put it after his final regular-season Dodger Stadium start on Friday, “the collective effort to do something hard together.”

“All that stuff is just so impactful, so meaningful,” Kershaw explained.

And if it had gone missing during the depths of mostly difficult summer months, Kershaw’s retirement has thrust it back to the forefront.

“I do think it helps reset,” Muncy said. “Over the course of seven, eight months, you see each other every day and sometimes you take that a little bit for granted … It’s not something that anyone forgot. But sometimes you need a refresher. I think that was a good moment for it.”

Don’t mistake this as a “Win one for Kersh!” attitude. The Dodgers insisted they needed no extra motivation to defend their title, even after what’s been a turbulent repeat campaign.

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw announces he will retire at the end of the season during a news conference at Dodger Stadium.

But, both players and coaches have noted recently, their efforts this year have sometimes felt misplaced. The togetherness they lauded during last year’s championship march hadn’t always been replicated. A pall was cast over much of the second half.

“When you’re not winning games, it’s not fun,” veteran infielder Miguel Rojas said earlier this month. “But at the end of the day, we gotta put all that aside. … We have to come here and enjoy ourselves around the clubhouse, regardless of the situation.”

The Dodgers did that and more this past weekend, when a celebration of Kershaw — which included nearly team-wide attendance at his Thursday news conference, several on-field ovations Friday, and Kershaw’s address to Dodger Stadium on Sunday — was accompanied by three wins out of four against the San Francisco Giants.

“Watching him get choked up when he started talking about the teammates — it was just a crazy feeling in that room,” pitcher Tyler Glasnow recounted from Thursday’s announcement.

Added Muncy: “You hear when he talks about the stuff he’s gonna miss the most, the stuff that he enjoys the most: It’s being a part of the team. It’s being with the guys. It’s being in the clubhouse.

“To hear a guy like him just reinforce that, I think it’s a good message for a lot of people to hear.”

In Muncy’s estimation, the Dodgers have “seen a reflection of that out on the field” of late, having moved to the verge of a division title (their magic number entering play Monday was three with a 10-4 record over the last two weeks.

“There’s been more of an effort to try and enjoy the moments,” Muncy said. “Make sure we’re still getting our work in, but try to enjoy the moments.”

The Dodgers made a similar transformation last October, when they used their first-round bye week to build the kind of cohesion they had lacked in previous postseason failures — one the team credited constantly in its eventual run to the World Series.

Kershaw’s retirement might’ve provided a similar spark, highlighting the significance of such intangible dynamics while lifting the gloom that had clouded the team’s last two months.

“There’s obviously been a lot of things to point [to this season], as far as adversities, which all teams go through,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But I think that as we’ve gotten to the other side of it … guys have stuck together and they’ve come out of it stronger, which a lot of the times, that’s what adversity does.”

More adversity, of course, figures to lie ahead.

The Dodgers ended the weekend on a sour note, with Blake Treinen suffering the latest bullpen implosion in a 3-1 loss on Sunday. They’ll still enter the playoffs in a somewhat unsettled place, needing to navigate around a struggling relief corps and overcome a hand injury to catcher Will Smith.

It means, like last year, their path through October is unlikely to be smooth.

That, after a second half full of frustrations, they’ll have to lean on a culture Kershaw emphasized, and praised, repeatedly over the weekend.

“To have a group of guys in it together, and kind of understanding that and being together, being able to have a ton of fun all the time, is really important,” Kershaw said. “The older I’ve gotten, the more important [I’ve realized] it is. Like, you can’t just go through your day every day and go through the emotions. You just can’t. It’s too hard, too long to do that.”

“You gotta have Miggy doing the mic on the bus. You gotta have Kiké. You gotta have all these guys that are able to keep us having fun and energized every single day. That’s what this group is, and it’s been a blast.”

Clayton Kershaw blew a kiss to his family, pounded a fist in his glove, then made the familiar trot from the Dodgers’ dugout to the Chavez Ravine mound.

This time, however, he did it alone.

In what was his final regular-season start at Dodger Stadium, coming one day after he announced that he would retire at the end of this year, Kershaw took the field while the rest of his teammates stayed back and applauded.

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On a night of appreciation for his 18-year career, the moment belonged to him — and an adoring fan base that has watched his every step.

The first time Kershaw ever pitched at Dodger Stadium, he was a much-hyped and highly anticipated 20-year-old prospect. His talent immense. His Hall of Fame future in front of him.

When he did it for potentially the last time on Friday night, he was a much-beloved and long-admired 37-year-old veteran. Hardened by the failures that once defined his baseball mortality. Celebrated for the way he had learned to overcome them.

Few athletes in modern sport play for one team, for so long. Fewer still experience the emotional extremes Kershaw was put through, or manage still to weather the storm.

When Kershaw was asked about Dodgers fans during his retirement news conference Thursday, that’s the dynamic he quickly pointed to.

“It hasn’t been a smooth ride,” he said. “We’ve had our ups and downs for sure.”

Between boundless cheers and intermittent boos, historic milestones and horrifying heartbreaks, triumphant summers and torturous falls.

In regular-season play, baseball has maybe never seen a more accomplished pitcher. Kershaw’s 2.54 ERA is the lowest in the live-ball era among those with 100 starts. He is one of the 20 members of MLB’s 3,000 strikeout club. He is one of four pitchers to win three Cy Youngs and an MVP award.

In October, however, no one’s history has been more checkered. There were implosions against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2013 and 2014. The infamous fifth game of the 2017 World Series against the sign-stealing Houston Astros. The nightmare relief appearance in 2019 against the Washington Nationals. Nine trips to the playoffs in his first 11 seasons, without winning a championship once.

In those days, it made Kershaw’s relationship complicated with Dodger Nation. He was heroic until he wasn’t. Clutch until the autumn. It didn’t matter that he was often pitching on short rest, or through injuries and strenuous workloads, or in situations no other pitcher would have ever been tasked. He was the embodiment of the Dodgers’ repeated postseason failings. The face of a franchise that could never clear the final hurdle.

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1. Clayton Kershaw reacts after getting San Francisco’s Jerar Encarnacion to hit into a double play in the third inning Friday night at Dodger Stadium. 2. Kershaw acknowledges the cheers from the Dodger Stadium crowd after exiting the game in the fifth inning. 3. Kershaw acknowledges the crowd after leaving the game in the fifth inning. 4. Kershaw is congratulated by his teammates as he exits the game. 5. Kershaw is embraced by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts as he leaves the game in the fifth inning. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

“It’s almost like a relationship, right?” Kershaw said. “You’ve been in it 18 years with them. There’s some great times, and then there’s some times where you probably want to break up for a minute.”

In his case, though, that’s how such an enduring bond was built.

He persevered through such struggles. He kept coming back every season. He finally got over the hump with World Series titles in 2020 and 2024. He never shied away from even his darkest moments.

“With that responsibility as the ace, you’ve got to take on a lot of scrutiny or potential failures,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Everything wasn’t optimal for him. But he never complained about it. Never made an excuse for it.

“I think the fans, certainly at his highest moments, have shown their love for him and support. In those other times, I think it’s just, the fans have been hurting along with him. Wanting so much for a guy that’s been such a stalwart and a great citizen and person for this city and organization.”

“I think the respect, the universal respect, is certainly warranted 10 times over.”

Over a 6-3 win against the San Francisco Giants that ended just minutes after the Dodgers clinched their 13th consecutive postseason berth, that’s what was celebrated from Kershaw’s first pitch to his last.

The left-hander threw 4⅓ innings of two-run ball, striking out six batters on four hits and four walks, but it wasn’t his stats that mattered. He struggled with his command, averaged only 89 mph with his fastball, and left the mound with the Dodgers trailing, but the memories from this night will go far beyond that.

From the moment Kershaw emerged on the field at 6:23 p.m., fans rose to their feet. They cheered and chanted his pregame routine in the outfield and bullpen. They roared when his name was introduced shortly before first pitch.

They knew this could be his Dodger Stadium send-off, a sentimental opportunity to say thank you for all he accomplished and all he endured.

Kershaw felt a swirl of emotions, as well, sitting teary-eyed in the outfield while taking in the scene before the game began.

“You’re trying to focus on the night and getting outs, but it’s a special day,” Kershaw said. “It’s the last time here, potentially, and this place has meant so much to me for so long. I didn’t want to not think about it.”

At the start of the first inning, his teammates made sure he wouldn’t. As Kershaw headed to the mound, the Dodgers’ fielders made an impromptu decision to stay back and let him be serenaded with an extended ovation.

“I didn’t love it,” Kershaw joked. “But it was a great gesture.”

And as he stood on the mound alone, he smiled and waved at a moment 18 years in the making.

“This is one of those moments where Dodger fans, you all have seen him for 18 years and watched his career grow and everything that he’s gone through,” Roberts said. “People are going to back and go, ‘I was there for the last time he started a home game at Dodger Stadium.’”

From there, the night was surprisingly tense.

Kershaw gave up a home run on the third pitch of the game to Heliot Ramos. He spent the next four innings battling traffic, stranding two runners later in the first, another two in the second, and two more in the third after a Wilmer Flores RBI single.

By the fourth, it was clear Kershaw was not long for the evening. His pitch count was rising. The bullpen was active. And with two outs in the inning, Willy Adames was extending a two-strike at-bat.

On the ninth pitch of that battle, however, Kershaw finally got a whiff on a slider. For the first time since the first inning, Dodger Stadium erupted once again.

Watch Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw’s full start against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

Kershaw returned to the mound in the fifth, and struck out Rafael Devers with a fastball at the knees.

With that, his night was over, along with maybe his Dodger Stadium career.

“I feel like the moments that we have right there in front of us, it’s history,” second baseman Miguel Rojas said.

“You had to just kind of be there to really feel the emotions,” shortstop Mookie Betts added.

In the stands, applause echoed through a sell-out crowd of 53,037 — which included former teammates Austin Barnes, Andre Ethier, Russell Martin, Trayce Thompson and AJ Pollock; as well as other Los Angeles sports icons from Magic Johnson to Matthew Stafford (a childhood friend of Kershaw’s from Texas).

After receiving hugs from his infield, and embracing Roberts with an apology (“I’m sorry I pitched so poorly tonight”) and a request (“Not trying to be disrespectful, but I’m keeping this ball”), the pitcher then made the slow walk back from the rubber.

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw makes a hugging gesture as he walks off the mound to a standing ovation at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

He took a deep breath. He gave a hugging motion to his family sitting in the loge level. He donned his cap, and repeatedly said thank you to a crowd that never ceased to cheer.

“It hasn’t always been a smooth ride, but you guys have stuck with me,” Kershaw, who also re-emerged from the dugout for a raucous curtain call, reiterated in a postgame on-field interview.

“Dodger Stadium is a super special place, and the fans are the main reason why,” he added in his postgame news conference with reporters. “They continue to come out and support us. Every night, it’s 50,000 people. I wish I had better words other than I’m just so honored and thankful to hear those ovations. I’ll never take that for granted.”

Now, one more October awaits — with the Dodgers (87-67) officially clinching a postseason berth Friday after roaring to the lead on back-to-back home runs from Shohei Ohtani and Betts in the bottom half of the fifth.

Kershaw’s role in this last title chase is uncertain. With a loaded rotation, but shaky relief corps, the Dodgers’ best use for him could come out of the bullpen. Roberts said he envisions Kershaw fitting somewhere on the playoff roster. Kershaw said he can “do the math” and is prepared “to do whatever I can to help.”

Either way, his legacy with the Dodgers, and its forever indebted fan base, had already long before been graciously cemented.

“I’m kind of mentally exhausted today, honestly, but it’s the best feeling in the world now,” Kershaw said. “We got a win, we clinched a playoff berth, and I got to stand on that mound one last time. I just can’t be more grateful.”

“Perfect night,” he later added. “It really was.”

Last year, in the middle of a World Series celebration he had spent two decades dreaming about, Clayton Kershaw took the mic at Dodger Stadium and made a declaration.

“I love you guys, thank you!” he shouted to an adoring Chavez Ravine crowd.

“Dodger for life!”

On Thursday, that distinction was cemented.

After 18 seasons, three Cy Young Awards, an MVP, more than 3,000 strikeouts and two World Series titles, Kershaw announced he will retire from Major League Baseball after this season.

Kershaw’s announcement, which came in a press release from the team, preceded what could now be his final Dodger Stadium start scheduled for Friday night.

That game will mark his 246th time taking the bump at the only ballpark he has ever called home. Depending on what happens in October, when Kershaw will make one more run at one more championship, it could be his last.

After 222 wins, more than 2,800 innings, and a career 2.54 ERA, his countdown to Cooperstown will begin this winter.

After serving as the face of the franchise during one of the most successful runs in club history, the book will finally be closing on his illustrious Dodgers career.

Kershaw’s retirement had been a long time coming. Over each of the past four offseasons, he contemplated whether or not to walk away from the game. An 11-time All-Star and five-time ERA champion, he long ago ensured his spot as a future Hall of Fame pitcher. As the franchise’s all-time strikeout leader, his place in club lore had already been enshrined.

Yet, the 37-year-old Kershaw never lost his desire to play.

Despite an elbow injury at the end of the 2021 season, a shoulder surgery after the 2023 campaign, and foot and knee procedures this past offseason, he came back to continue his Dodgers career — never ready to give up another title chase.

This year, he has authored the kind of renaissance season that once felt beyond him. He is 10-2 in 20 starts with a 3.53 ERA, succeeding despite diminished fastball velocity and a decline in overall stuff. He has been an integral member of a first-place Dodgers team. And though one more postseason run lies ahead, with the Dodgers trying to defend last year’s World Series title, he decided his time in baseball was finally up.

“On behalf of the Dodgers, I congratulate Clayton on a fabulous career and thank him for the many moments he gave to Dodger fans and baseball fans everywhere, as well as for all of his profound charitable endeavors,” Dodgers owner Mark Walter said in the team’s release. “His is a truly legendary career, one that we know will lead to his induction in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Originally drafted seventh overall by the Dodgers out of Highland Park High School in Texas in 2006, Kershaw has spent the entirety of his professional life in the organization, going from top prospect to young sensation to Cy Young winner to pitcher of his generation.

He made his MLB debut in 2008, and broke out as a star the following year. By 2011, he had earned his first All-Star selection, his first ERA title and his first Cy Young Award. The accolades would keep coming after that — with Kershaw leading the majors in ERA each season from 2011-2014, winning two more Cy Youngs in 2013 and 2014, and becoming only only the 22nd pitcher to ever win MVP honors with his 21-3, 1.77-ERA season in that historic 2014 campaign.

The back half of Kershaw’s career was plagued by injuries, starting with a bad back that sidelined him for part of 2016.

Still, he earned another ERA in 2017, while helping the Dodgers win their first pennant in 29 years. He had a resurgent performance in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, going 6-2 in the regular season with a 2.16 ERA before finally experiencing a World Series title.

Up to that point, the postseason was the only area were Kershaw struggled. In 32 playoff outings from 2008-2019, he was 9-11 with a 4.43 ERA — mediocre numbers underscored by excruciating collapses against the St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros and Washington Nationals along the way.

But in 2020, Kershaw vanquished such demons, making five starts and going 4-1 with a 2.93 ERA in the Dodgers’ first victorious World Series run since 1998. The title, Kershaw has said since, meant more than even he could have ever imagined.

“I think having that [World Series] definitely started letting me relax a little bit more,” Kershaw said in 2023. “I didn’t realize I had been carrying that weight that much.”

And once he won it once, the notoriously competitive left-hander craved to do it again.

That’s why, even as his body has continued to break down in recent years, Kershaw kept coming back every spring. He believed, when healthy, he could still contribute to a World Series roster. And despite numerous free-agent flirtations with his hometown Texas Rangers, he always saw the Dodgers as the best way to get there.

It made last year’s World Series title a sentimental one for the iconic left-hander. Kershaw was a limited participant, making only seven starts in the regular season before missing the playoffs with his foot and knee problems. But he relished in the celebration, especially the title-winning parade that the 2020 team had been denied by the pandemic.

He knew then that he would be a Dodger for life.

On Thursday, it finally became official.

BALTIMORE — The day started with a couple of Shohei Ohtani home runs. It continued with a strong 5 ⅔ inning start from Clayton Kershaw. And it ended with the Dodgers in a celebratory postgame line, trading victorious high-fives near the mound.

After five straight losses, several weeks of mounting frustration, and the most painful collapse imaginable the night before, the Dodgers took a crucial first step toward righting their sinking ship on Sunday.

They beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-2, finally finding a way to hold a late-game lead.

They ended an otherwise disastrous road trip on a sorely needed high note.

It was the kind of day the Dodgers were desperately searching for amid their recent struggles, which reached a new low when their no-hitter turned walk-off nightmare on Saturday trimmed their division lead down to just one game.

That game was the kind of loss that threatened to throw the Dodgers into an all-out nose-dive; an unthinkable defeat that, on top of their previously mounting frustrations, turned Sunday into yet another gut check for the long-slumping club (which entered Sunday 10 games under .500 since July 4).

“We’ve got to keep going,” manager Dave Roberts said pregame. “It’s hard. It’s not fun going through it. These guys feel it. But I just refuse to relent and not be optimistic and positive. Just keep going. That’s all we can do.”

Ohtani helped the Dodgers (79-64) turn the page quickly Sunday. Facing a fellow Japanese native in Tomoyuki Sugano, Ohtani launched the second pitch he saw to center for a leadoff home run. It was his 12th leadoff blast of the year, tying Mookie Betts’ franchise record for a single season.

On Ohtani’s next trip to the plate, the two-way star went deep again, blasting his 48th home run of the year on a 2-and-0 fastball. And in the next at-bat, Mookie Betts made it back-to-back deep flies with a drive to left.

Just like that, the Dodgers had a 3-0 lead — which was later extended to 4-0 after Miguel Rojas scored from third on an errant pickoff throw from Baltimore catcher Alex Jackson in the fourth.

And unlike Saturday, they managed to hold onto it, finally matching a productive day at the plate with a stout (if not entirely stress-free) performance from the pitching staff.

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw delivers in the third inning against the Orioles on Sunday.

(Terrance Williams / Associated Press)

As he has repeatedly this year, Kershaw served as a stopper to another Dodgers slider, setting a new season high with eight strikeouts while giving up just two hits through his first five innings.

Kershaw got knocked out of the game in the sixth, following a Gunnar Henderson single and RBI double from Emmanuel Rivera. Edgardo Henriquez flirted with disaster after that, giving up another RBI double to Jackson and a loud fly ball to Dylan Carlson that died at the warning track.

But from there, the Dodgers settled back down. Justin Wrobleski provided two key innings of scoreless relief, stranding the final five batters he faced after putting two aboard in the seventh. The Dodgers tacked on an insurance run in the ninth, when Betts hit an RBI single off the wall (he was held to just the one base after not hustling out of the box) following a leadoff single from Ben Rortvedt and a walk from Ohtani (his third of the day, reaching base in all five trips to the plate).

And after being walked off by the Orioles (66-77) each of the first two nights at Camden Yards this weekend, the Dodgers avoided more fireworks in the ninth, when rookie left-hander Jack Dreyer came on for his third save of the season.

Granted, one win will put only the slightest dent in the damage the past week has done.

Instead of extending their National League West lead and making a run for a top-two seed in the NL, the Dodgers let the San Diego Padres (who have also been slumping) hang around in the division and the Philadelphia Phillies (who currently hold the No. 2 seed, which comes with a first-round bye in the playoffs) pull away in the standings.

Instead of capitalizing on a weak spot in the schedule, they will return home with a 1-5 record against two last-place teams.

However, given the way Saturday ended, the season was starting to feel dangerously close to the brink. Sunday’s win, for at least one day, helped calm the waters. At a point they could have completely imploded, they managed to rebound with a long-awaited win.

The Dodgers might be sprinting toward the finish line this year, trying to edge out the San Diego Padres in a tight National League West race.

But on Tuesday night, they made a 6-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds feel more like a nice, leisurely stroll.

Clayton Kershaw continued his renaissance season, pitching five innings of one-run ball to earn a fifth-consecutive victory (his longest such streak since the end of the 2022 season). The offense steadily wore the Reds’ pitching staff down, answering a first-inning Cincinnati run with one of their own before taking the lead for good in the fourth.

And it all added up to a third-straight win for the Dodgers (76-57), keeping them alone in first place atop the division.

Kershaw provided the bedrock for Tuesday’s victory.

The left-hander was pitching on four days’ rest for the third time this season (more than anyone else on the team), so that Shohei Ohtani could be lined up to start ahead of an off day on Wednesday. And early on, the Reds (68-65) tagged him with a quick run, after Spencer Steer led off with a double and later scored on Miguel Andújar’s groundout.

Starting with that grounder, however, Kershaw proceeded to retire the last 14 batters he faced. Six came via strikeout, marking his second-highest strikeout total this season. And of balls put in play, only four were “hard hit” (with an exit velocity greater than 95 mph). Not one left the bat at more than 100 mph.

It was the latest example of the 37-year-old left-hander’s newfound recipe for success: Once again hitting his spots with an 88-mph fastball, leaning heavily on a slider that generated five whiffs and four outs, and mixing in his trademark curveball and newfangled splitter to keep an entirely right-handed Reds lineup off-balance in a 72-pitch outing.

Given the low pitch count, Kershaw might have been able to go past the fifth. He and manager Dave Roberts appeared to have a brief conversation in the dugout before shaking hands, a sign his night was over. But between his quick (by modern-day standards, at least) four-day turnaround, and the team’s careful management of his workload overall this season, Kershaw’s five innings were plenty.

On the season, Kershaw is 9-2 with a 3.06 ERA, third-best among Dodgers starters this year. He also finishes August with a 1.88 ERA in five starts, third-best among National League starters for the month.

While Kershaw cruised, the Dodgers’ offense also found a groove.

They erased the early 1-0 deficit in the bottom of the first, when Mookie Betts walked, Freddie Freeman doubled and Betts scored on a throwing error by Reds left fielder Austin Hays.

They took a 2-1 lead in the fourth, after a leadoff double from Teoscar Hernández, an infield single from Michael Conforto on a scorching comebacker that ripped the glove right off the hand of Reds pitcher Nick Martinez, and a sacrifice fly from Kiké Hernández (who returned to the lineup for the first time since early July after being out with an elbow injury).

Then, in the sixth, they broke the game open with a four-run rally.

Will Smith turned around a center-cut fastball for an opposite-field, leadoff home run, a positive sign for the slumping catcher who entered the night with a .150 batting average in August and only one long ball in his previous 25 games.

Miguel Rojas came off the bench for a two-run double later in the inning, smoking a flyball to deep center that got Noelvi Marte (who was making his first career MLB start in the middle of the outfield) turned around at the warning track.

Ohtani followed that with an RBI single to right, helping him break a one-for-16 skid.

The only bad news for the Dodgers on Tuesday came pregame, when left-handed reliever Alex Vesia was placed on the injured list with a right oblique strain. The severity of his injury was not immediately known.

But even without him, the Dodgers’ bullpen largely coasted in relief of Kershaw. Blake Treinen and Tanner Scott, both having recently returned from the IL, pitched scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth (giving Scott his first save since returning). And though Hays hit a two-run home run in the seventh off Ben Casparius, it did little to make Tuesday feel like anything more than a late-season cakewalk — even amid a mad dash down the season’s closing stretch.

Sasaki’s latest rehab start

In triple-A Oklahoma City, rookie pitcher Roki Sasaki made the third start of his minor-league rehab stint, giving up three runs in 3 ⅔ innings on five hits, two walks and four strikeouts. The most encouraging takeaway from the outing was Sasaki’s fastball velocity, which averaged 96 mph for a second-straight outing and topped out at 98.8 mph — the hardest he has thrown in his recovery from a shoulder injury. Sasaki is expected to make at least one more rehab start before being ready to be activated.

Lately, the only thing the Dodgers excel at is losing games they should win. When they hit they can’t pitch and when they pitch they can’t hit. They can’t move runners over or get a clutch hit and, of course, the relievers still can’t throw strikes. It all adds up to a good year … for the Padres.

Alan Abajian
Alta Loma

To paraphrase the old adage, you can put lipstick on the Dodgers — for example, so and so is coming back … or recovering.

But any team that has played as inconsistently as they have at the plate, in the field, and on the pitcher’s mound is very unlikely to survive in multiple playoff short series. It’s virtually certain that type of team will get tripped up along the way. Especially one predicted to win 120 games.

Kip Dellinger
Santa Monica

Mr. Plaschke is saying that the Dodgers’ failure to trade for bullpen help is the problem with the bullpen. Maybe he should point the finger at the guy (mis)using them.

John Vitz
Manhattan Beach

Re: Bill Plaschke’s column on Dodgers at trade deadline — The Dodgers didn’t have an “inability” to improve their bullpen, it was an “unwillingness.” With the talent in their system, the Dodgers could have easily put together a package to get Mason Miller, David Bednar or similar. Impossible to know if there was any meaningful undisclosed trade talk to get better bullpen help, but it sure looks like the Dodgers simply decided not to do it. It also looks like it could be a big mistake.

John Merryman
Redondo Beach

Truth be told, the story was about the incredible Angel comeback/sweep of the Dodgers. Once again the columnist focuses on the Dodgers’ injuries instead of the Angels’ mind-blowing bottom of the ninth rally. Will the “Summer Bummer” continue when the Padres invade Dodger Stadium?

Patrick Kelley
Los Angeles

Who ARE these people and what have they done with our Dodgers?

Sarah Tamor
Santa Monica

Even now, Clayton Kershaw.

After all these years, Clayton Kershaw.

When the Dodgers are reeling and roiling and losing their grip on a long hot summer, who is the one player who can stop the fall and calm the nerves and, oh yeah, kick some San Diego Padre butt?

Still, still, still, Clayton Kershaw.

He’s 37 with a battered 18-season body and a fastball the speed of a Zamboni and yet there he was Friday night, carrying an entire worried Dodger nation on his weary shoulders into the opener of a three-game series against the cocky rivals who had just stolen first place.

Final score: Dodgers 3, Padres 2

Final line: Six innings, two hits, one run.

Final verdict: He’s still All That.

“We had the right guy on the mound tonight, I think we all know that,” said manager Dave Roberts, smiling for what seemed like the first time in a week. “What he did for us tonight, not only just the compete, but the stuff … getting us through six innings was huge, setting us up for the rest of the series … Clayton set the tone … big, big outing by him.”

It was a blast from the past, only it’s been happening in the present, Kershaw behaving like the staff’s second-best starter, improving his record to 7-2 while lowering his ERA to 3.01 and, as crazy as this once sounded, making an early case for inclusion in the postseason rotation.

“It was a good night,” Kershaw said.

Understated as usual. For all this game meant, it was a great night.

Since July 4 the Dodgers had been worse than even the Colorado Rockies, with a 12-21 record while losing 10 games in the standings to the Padres in a span of 40 days, surrendering first place just two days ago, and set to play the Padres six times in the next two weeks.

They desperately needed somebody to stop the bleeding. And before the game, Roberts claimed that Kershaw was “the perfect guy” to do it.

Perfect prediction. Almost perfect performance.

There was Kershaw, spinning and steering and surfing the ball past the Padre bats with apparent ease, his only mistake a hanging curve that Ramón Laureano hit 400 feet.

There was Kershaw, deftly making plays from the mound, demonstrably pleading for every close strike call, proudly stalking from the mound into a dugout filled with hugs and high-fives.

And there was Kershaw, after his maligned bullpen danced through danger and barely survived, admitting that maybe this game meant a little more.

“When you play everyday, things can spiral pretty quick,” he said. “So maybe just coming home, having an off day to reset, and playing good games … it just takes one to get going. Hopefully this was it tonight for us.”

Before the game, Roberts acknowledged that the Dodgers just play harder, and with more urgency, when Kershaw is pitching.

“He had a way of elevating people’s focus and play,” Roberts said.

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw turns to walk back to the dugout after the Dodgers completed a double play against the Padres in the sixth inning Friday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Sure enough, a team that had seemingly forgotten to do the little things did every little thing, from great defensive plays at the corners from Alex Freeland and Freddie Freeman to the eighth-inning sweeper from Blake Treinen that fooled Manny Machado into stranding two runners with a popout.

This is a team that devoutly follows Kershaw … when they’re not sitting back and admiring him.

“He’s built for these big moments,” said Teoscar Hernández, whose seventh inning homer eventually proved to be the difference. “He is a legend.”

Kershaw was at his best when the Dodgers’ best was needed, and in doing so he brought sanity back to the National League West and old-fashioned hardball back to a series that had become cheap and unseemly.

In these two teams’ seven previous meetings this season, the Padres Fernando Tatis Jr. was hit three times, Shohei Ohtani was hit twice, and Roberts and Padres manager Mike Shildt engaged in a brief shoving and shouting match.

The stage was set for more bad blood, but Kershaw, who entered with a career 23-11 record and 2.19 ERA against the Padres, quickly put an end to that. He retired the Padres on a three-up-three-down first inning and efficiently dominated them from there.

“It’s a game in August, obviously, it’s not that huge a deal,” Kershaw said. “But the way we were going, it felt like a big game for us and, thankful that we got a win.”

The only possible controversy emerged when Kershaw was removed from the game after just 76 pitches, surprising fans who didn’t have time to give him the proper standing ovation while leaving the game in the shaky hands of the bullpen.

Get used to it. The Dodgers are smartly going to protect the midseason Kershaw in hopes of maximizing the October Kershaw.

“I just think we’ve got to take care of him,” Roberts said. “For Clayton to give us six strong innings of one-run baseball, he did his job, there was no reason to push him more.”

Before the game, Roberts was asked if his struggling team held a players-only meeting. He said that, no, the transparent results of the next week would be the equivalent of any meeting.

“I don’t like to be embarrassed, I don’t think our players do, so this series I’m expecting high intensity and high performance,” Roberts said. “I think in itself, the schedule over the next week, will suffice in lieu of a meeting.”

In an opener that pulled the two teams into a first-place tie, the early results were clear.

High intensity? Check.

High performance? Check.

Clayton Kershaw? Still.

When Clayton Kershaw signed a one-year deal with the Dodgers last February, it looked like it could have marked the start of a goodbye tour. The left-hander would take one more trip around the league, then settle into a rocking chair and wait for the Hall of Fame to call.

Instead, Kershaw has shown flashes of the pitcher who won three Cy Young Awards in four seasons, though now he gets by on guile and guts more than curveballs and sliders. On Sunday, however, he was undone by his defense in a 6-5 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.

It was the Dodgers’ third loss in as many games since the All-Star break and 10th in a dozen games overall, the team’s worst 12-game slump since 2018.

And the losses keep mounting in other ways as well, with first baseman Freddie Freeman sustaining a left wrist contusion after being hit by a José Quintana pitch in the sixth inning. Freeman is among the Dodgers’ leaders in batting average (.292) and is third in runs (47) and hits (95). With the team already missing third baseman Max Muncy and utility player Kiké Hernández, the possibility of losing Freeman for any stretch would be a significant blow.

The game ended with the slumping Mookie Betts lining out to center field with the bases loaded.

The Dodgers’ rotation has also been battered by injury, which is why Kershaw’s performances have been so important. Despite missing the first seven weeks of the season, he ranks third on the team with 11 starts and has given up two or fewer earned runs in eight of them — including Sunday, when he scattered five hits over 4 1/3 innings, exiting the game with the score tied 3-3 in the fifth.

Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw delivers in the first inning Sunday against the Brewers.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

Kershaw, who left without a decision, would have pitched longer had a throwing error by third baseman Tommy Edman and a misplayed fly ball by center fielder Andy Pages not extended the Brewers’ fourth inning twice, forcing Kershaw to throw 29 pitches in the inning. And he battled to get that far, working with a fastball that rarely topped 90 mph and a curve he bounced to the plate more than once.

“It just speaks to the guy,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts before the game. “Even when he doesn’t have his best on that particular day, he does what’s called of him each time out.”

“He has adjusted, as far as using his whole pitch mix more,” Roberts continued. “He’s incorporating a lot more pitches and trying to keep guys more off a particular set, attacking guys differently.”

The Dodgers (58-42) gave Kershaw an early lead with a three-run third. Pages led with a double to left, then scored on a line-drive sacrifice fly by Dalton Rushing. After Betts followed with a single, Shohei Ohtani sliced a 2-0 sinker over the left-field wall for league-leading his 34th home run.

The defense gave all three runs back in the fourth with a two-out throwing error by Edman letting in a run and Pages misplaying a ball that bounced off his glove near the warning track in center for a tying double.

Esteury Ruiz’s first home run for the Dodgers put them back in front in the fifth, but the Brewers (59-40) went in front to stay in sixth, scoring three times off relievers Alex Vesia and Lou Trivino (3-1) on a double, three singles and a walk.

The Dodgers’ bullpen earned-run average of 4.38 ranks 12th in the 15-team National League. The team hasn’t gotten a scoreless game from its bullpen since July 3.

After Rushing’s bases-loaded infield single pulled the Dodgers to within a run in the ninth, Betts, who was elevated to the leadoff spot in the order in an effort to end a slump that had seen him start July hitting .174 with as many strikeouts as hits, lined out to center. He finished one for five, dropping his average to .240.

Notes: Pitchers Blake Snell and Blake Treinen made rehab appearances for triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday. Snell, who has been on the injured list since April 6 because of left shoulder inflammation, made 58 pitchers over four innings, giving up a run on four hits while striking out six. It was his third rehab appearance. Treinen, out since April 19 with a forearm strain, followed with a perfect fifth inning in which he struck out two. He could return to the Dodgers’ roster this week.

ATLANTA — In a week where so much of the focus was on players who weren’t playing in the All-Star Game, and those who were selected that weren’t seen as deserving, it was the player who had been in more Midsummer Classics than anyone else who delivered the most profound reminder.

Before the start of Major League Baseball’s 95th All-Star Game at Truist Park in Atlanta, National League manager Dave Roberts called upon longtime Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw to speak in the clubhouse.

And in an impromptu pregame speech as the team’s elder statesman, Kershaw imparted the most important lesson he’s learned from his 11 All-Star Games.

“The All-Star Game, it can be hard at times for the players,” Kershaw recounted when asked about his message to the team. “It’s a lot of travel, it’s a lot of stress, chaos, family, all this stuff.”

“But,” the 37-year-old future Hall of Famer added, “it’s meaningful, it’s impactful for the game, it’s important for the game. We have the best All-Star Game of any sport. We do have the best product. So to be here, to realize your responsibility to the sport is important … And I just said I was super honored to be part of it.”

Kershaw, admittedly, was picked for this year’s game for more sentimental reasons than anything.

After making only 10 starts in the first half of the year following offseason foot and knee surgeries, the future Hall of Famer was shoehorned in as a “Legend Pick” by commissioner Rob Manfred, getting the nod a week after becoming the 20th pitcher in MLB with 3,000 strikeouts.

The honor made Kershaw feel awkward, with the three-time Cy Young Award winner repeatedly joking that he hadn’t really deserved to return to the All-Star Game for the first time since 2023, despite his 4-1 record and 3.38 ERA so far this season.

At first, he acknowledged, he even had a little hesitancy about participating in this week’s festivities in Atlanta.

“My initial response was just, you don’t ever want to take somebody’s spot,” he said. “You don’t ever want to be a side show.”

A side show, however, Kershaw was not.

Instead, as the man with the most All-Star selections of anyone in this year’s game (and the fourth-most by a pitcher), Kershaw was at the center of one of the most memorable moments from the National League’s win on a tiebreaking home run derby after a 6-6 tie.

Upon entering the game at the start of the second inning, he retired the first two batters he faced; the latter, a strikeout looking of Toronto Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He then turned to the dugout to see Roberts coming to get him, ending what could very well be his final appearance in the Midsummer Classic (even though, he has made a point of noting, he has not made any decision on retirement after the season).

And as he exited the mound, he was serenaded with one of the night’s loudest ovations, waving a hand in appreciation before blowing a kiss to his family in the stands.

“I didn’t anticipate to be here. I definitely didn’t anticipate to pitch,” Kershaw said. “So it was awesome. So thankful for it now.”

Many others in Atlanta felt the same way about sharing the week with Kershaw.

Shohei Ohtani watches his base hit during the first inning.

(Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)

NL starter Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates had the locker next to Kershaw in the Truist Park clubhouse, and joked his only hope was that veteran left-hander wouldn’t get sick of him by the end of the event.

“He’s such a class act, it’s just so impressive,” Skenes said. “We were in the waiting room before the red carpet today, and he had all his kids, and watching him as dad too, it was a cool experience.”

San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb recalled his memories of watching Kershaw while growing up in Northern California.

“I just respect him so much, watching him pitch,” Webb said. “You could’ve asked me five years ago, and you could’ve said Clayton Kershaw was a legend already. He is a legend. I’m just happy I’m able to share a clubhouse with him.”

Kershaw’s lighter side was on display Tuesday, as well, with the pitcher mic’d up with the Fox broadcast team for his brief outing.

“I’m gonna try to throw some cheese real quick, hold on,” he joked while unleashing an 89-mph fastball to Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, which turned into a lineout in left thanks to a diving effort from Kyle Tucker of the Chicago Cubs.

“Hey!” Kershaw exclaimed. “That was sick.”

On his first pitch to Guerrero, Kershaw threw another fastball that the Blue Jays’ star took for a strike.

“Right down the middle,” Kershaw said. “I’m so glad he didn’t swing.”

When Guerrero got to a 1-and-1 count after a curveball in the dirt, Kershaw contemplated his next pitch.

“I think I probably gotta go slider,” he said. “Let’s see what Will thinks.”

Behind the plate, teammate Will Smith instead called for a curveball.

“Nope, he wants curveball again,” Kershaw laughed. “All right, fine.”

Guerrero swung through it — “Oh, got him,” he said — before freezing on a slider two pitches later for a called third strike.

“I’m getting blown up by former teammates saying, ‘Wow, you’ve changed so much,’ and they’re right,” Kershaw joked afterward, acknowledging his once-fiery demeanor never would have allowed him to embrace an in-game interview like that. “I don’t think I would’ve ever done that [in the past]. But it was actually kind of fun.”

Really, that was the theme of Kershaw’s whole week.

Reluctantly accepting his stature as one of the game’s most decorated players. Accepting an invitation designed to honor his career accomplishments. And providing a reminder of the All-Star Game’s meaning, in what will perhaps be his last time on such a stage.

“It’s a very awesome, special thing to get to come to All-Star Games,” he said. “I remember the first one, how special that was. And I don’t think a lot has changed for me over the years to get to come to these things. So I don’t take that for granted. I think it’s really awesome. I mean, I shouldn’t be here anyway, so it’s very possible this could be my last one. So it was just a very awesome night, special.”

MILWAUKEE — Clayton Kershaw has been an All-Star 10 times before.

But no selection surprised him quite like this year’s.

Included on the National League All-Star team as a “Legend Pick” by Commissioner Rob Manfred in recognition of his career accomplishments, Kershaw did not get any advance warning from Manfred or anyone in the league office that he would be in the “Midsummer Classic.”

When manager Dave Roberts gathered his Dodgers team to announce the club’s All-Star selections on Sunday, Kershaw forgot that the “Legend Pick” — which has been used in the past for players such as Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera — was even a thing.

Thus, when Roberts announced Kershaw’s name, the 37-year-old was caught more than a little off-guard — having made just nine starts this season since returning from offseason toe and knee surgeries.

“Obviously, I don’t deserve to get to go this season, haven’t pitched very much,” he deadpanned. “I don’t know if Doc was going for the surprise factor or not. But I had no idea until he said it.”

But by Monday, the meaningfulness of what he described as a “tremendous honor” had also set in, with Kershaw expressing gratitude for what will be his 11th career selection, tied for the most among active players with Mike Trout.

“You never take for granted getting to go to an All-Star Game, regardless of the circumstances,” Kershaw said. “At the end of the day, it’s weird but cool, so I’m just going to enjoy it.”

While Kershaw’s limited workload would normally not warrant an All-Star selection, his stats haven’t been too far off that pace this year: A 4-0 record, 3.43 ERA and 1.254 WHIP in what is the 18th season of his future Hall of Fame career.

“I think there’s some good and some bad,” Kershaw said of his season so far. “I wouldn’t say happy, but I wouldn’t say disappointed either. I would say kind of right in the middle.”

The highlight of the campaign, of course, came in Kershaw’s last start, when he became the 20th pitcher in MLB history to record 3,000 career strikeouts.

But at this stage of his career, Kershaw’s real satisfaction has been with his health — finally past the various back, elbow, shoulder, knee and toe injuries that had plagued him over the last several seasons.

“I think the biggest thing is just the mental toll [that takes on you],” Kershaw said. “Anyone that has been dealing with stuff, I think it’s always in the back of your head. You wake up and you test it and you move around and you test it to see if it hurts, see how bad it hurts. [Now], instead of wondering if you can pitch, it’s just a matter of how you’re going to pitch. I don’t think I took into appreciation the mental toll that takes over time. So to just worry about pitching is nice, for sure.”

It has also allowed Kershaw “to get the reps and go back out and be able to feel OK in between starts to work on some stuff,” he said. “Figure out some different things mechanically and pitch-wise and stuff.”

Long-term, Kershaw still hasn’t decided if this will be his final season.

“I don’t know what is going to happen in the future,” he said. “I really have no idea when it comes to the years beyond this one. So I’m just trying to enjoy it, be part of a really good team this year.”

When it comes to next week’s All-Star Game, he isn’t even sure if he’ll pitch in the showcase exhibition, which will be held at Truist Park in Atlanta.

“I’d love to pitch but I don’t want to take an inning away from somebody who’s never done it before or this is their first year or whatever,” he said. “I’ll enjoy just to hang or pitch or whatever.”

On Monday, Kershaw’s focus was instead on his final start of the first half: A scheduled Tuesday outing against the Milwaukee Brewers and their 23-year-old rookie starlet, Jacob Misiorowski.

Kershaw, 14 years Misiorowski’s senior, laughed when asked what it’s like to be the elder statesman in such high-profile matchups now.

“I saw a couple highlights [of him], know he throws hard,” Kershaw said. “But so does everybody. Except me.”

When Clayton Kershaw made his major league debut as a gangly 20-year-old with a devastating curveball, he was considered a one-in-a-million talent.

On Wednesday he entered a much smaller club, becoming the 20th pitcher in history to strike out 3,000 batters. The milestone came in the sixth inning on his 100th pitch of the night, a 1-and-2 slider the Chicago White Sox’s Vinny Capra took for a called strike.

Kershaw then walked off the mound alone with his thoughts before being mobbed by his teammates on the warning track in front of the dugout. The Dodgers marked the moment with a video of his considerable career highlights on the video boards above the outfield pavilions.

An hour later the Dodgers had even more to celebrate when Freddie Freeman’s two-out RBI single capped a three-run ninth-inning rally in a walk-off 5-4 win.

“It’s the last box for Clayton to check in his tremendous career,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who doubted many more pitchers will ever join the 3K club.

“You’ve got to stay healthy, you’ve got to be good early in your career, you’ve got to be good for a long time,” he said. “I’m a fan first and I’ve kind of appreciated longevity and moments like that, as opposed to one moment in time. The consistency is something that should be valued.”

Roberts said before the game he would manage differently as Kershaw approached the milestone and he did, allowing him to start the sixth inning despite having made 92 pitches, the most he’s thrown in a game in more than two years.

He would need just eight more. Capra was the 27th batter Kershaw faced and the 15th he took to a two-strike count.

“It’s a little bit harder when you’re actually trying to strike people out,” Kershaw said. “I never really did that before.”

But he could sense the sellout crowd of 53,536 pulling for him every time he got close.

“They wanted it for me so bad,” he said. “And strikeouts tonight, I didn’t really do my part. But you could feel the tension and the fans. They were trying to will me to do it.”

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The Dodgers entered the ninth trailing 4-2 but loaded the bases with no outs on a single by Michael Conforto and walks to Tommy Edman and Hyeseong Kim.

Shohei Ohtani drove in one run on a ground ball to second, hustling up the line to avoid the double play. Mookie Betts followed with a sacrifice fly to the warning track in left-center to score Edman with the tying run.

Ohtani then stole second, scoring two batters later on Freeman’s single to right.

That kept Kershaw, who gave up a season-high nine hits, from taking his first loss of the season. But the Dodgers may have suffered an even bigger loss on the first pitch of the Capra at-bat when Chicago’s Michael Taylor slid hard into Max Muncy on an unsuccessful attempt to steal third.

Muncy, who hit a team-high .333 in June, writhed on the ground before being helped off the field, favoring his left knee. His condition was not immediately known.

Roberts said Muncy will undergo an MRI exam on Thursday but added “that we feel optimistic and our hope is that it’s a sprain.”

Taylor also left the game with a left shoulder bruise.

Nearly three hours earlier Kershaw had been greeted by a loud ovation when he stepped onto the field to stretch about 40 minutes before game time. But the loudest roar — aside the one for the record strikeout — came when Kershaw bounded out of the dugout to start the sixth.

“The energy in the crowd definitely palpable,” he said. “That ovation was something that I’ll never forget, for sure. And then the toast after the game with everybody. I’ll remember those things.”

The White Sox, meanwhile, wanted no part of the party. They forced Kershaw to labor through a 29-pitch first inning in which he faced six hitters, giving up a run and three hits. And it could have been worse, with a leaping Conforto robbing Lenyn Sosa of a three-run home run at the bullpen gate in left field for the final out.

Will Smith, announced as an All-Star starter along with Freeman and Ohtani earlier in the day, got that run back with two out in the bottom of the first, lining a full-count pitch into the left-field bleachers. White Sox opener Brandon Eisert did not return for the second inning and Andy Pages greeted his replacement rudely, driving Sean Burke’s first pitch over the wall in center for his 17th homer.

The Dodgers’ lead was short-lived, however, with Chase Meidroth opening the Chicago third with a single, then trotting home on Austin Slater’s two-run homer. Chicago added another run later in the inning on a one-out double from Andrew Benintendi and an RBI single from Edgar Quero.

Kershaw and the Dodgers, however, endured and at the end of the night the team had a win and the pitcher had joined an exclusive club.

“It’s an incredible list,” Kershaw said. “I’m super, super grateful to be a part of it.”

Etc.

Before Wednesday’s game, pitchers Blake Snell and Blake Treinen threw to hitters for the first time since going on the injured list in April. Snell, a two-time Cy Young winner, went on the injured list because of shoulder inflammation April 6 while Treinen has been sidelined because of forearm tightness since April 19. “They’ll go again in a couple days,” Roberts said. “But both guys looked really good.” Right-hander Tyler Glasnow, also out since April because of shoulder inflammation, is scheduled to make his third minor league rehab start for Oklahoma City on Thursday.

Staff writer Ira Gorawara contributed to this report.

Fernando Urquiza screamed himself hoarse, slapping palms with strangers on the field level of Dodger Stadium. He’d waited six innings — each on the very edge of his seat. He refreshed flight options to Milwaukee in case Clayton Kershaw made him wait until his next start for strikeout No. 3,000.

Roderick Abram, a die-hard New York Yankees fan celebrating his 40th birthday, rejoiced when Kershaw reached the strikeout milestone. In enemy pinstripes, his team allegiance wavered long enough to clap for a man he often hopes gets shelled — particularly in the Bronx — but not on Wednesday night.

Kershaw’s historic game wasn’t necessarily a vintage outing, but to his dearest fans, that only deepened the meaning.

The Chicago White Sox didn’t make it easy for Kershaw. He labored. He gave up runs. It seemed he might fall one short of the three strikeouts he needed. And still, he managed to finally become the 20th pitcher in MLB history to reach 3,000 strikeouts.

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“Building the emotion and building it up to what it came to be,” said Urquiza, who has attended Dodger games for 38 years. “But Clayton Kershaw pitching, it wouldn’t have happened any other way than to be an emotional outcome.”

As Kershaw wrapped the fifth with just two strikeouts, the mood at Dodger Stadium tightened. Phones rose with each windup, fans stood between pitches and that rare postseason stillness crept in, nearly three months early.

And though some considered leaving early to beat traffic and others weighed booking Milwaukee flights, it didn’t seem as though hope fled Dodger Stadium.

“I know it took a little bit longer for him to get it, but I knew he was going to get it, and that’s why they kept him in. And he wanted it bad, and he got it,” said 34-year-old barber Steven Moreno, who said he “wouldn’t have missed the game for the world.”

Back in 2008, Daniel Palomera brought his kids to watch Greg Maddux pitch. Instead, a baby-faced 20-year-old with a towering leg kick took the mound.

A young fan holds a sign with the number “3,000” on the night Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw recorded his 3,000th career strikeout.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

Palomera saw the early days of Kershaw’s career 17 years ago and returned Wednesday for what could be one of his last major milestones.

“Two years ago, I didn’t think he was gonna make it,” Palomera said. “And last year, I thought he might have thought of retiring with all the injuries, but him coming back just makes it that much more special. He’s getting to do it here — that’s really special.”

Jeremy Wasser stood a few rows behind home plate in a sky blue Kershaw Foundation T-shirt. He tilted his head back and paused for a moment when asked about Kershaw’s legacy.

“To see him be as successful as he’s been, as consistently great as he’s been, he’s represented the city and represented the team with class and with character,” Wasser said. “And the combination of that character and his performance on the field is an extraordinary achievement.”

Kershaw’s accompliment will forever be known as a major milestone in Dodgers history, but it meant more than a statistic to the fans who gave the loyal veteran pitcher a six-minute standing ovation.

“The way he cares and treats his own teammates like family,” Moreno said. “He’s made this organization like a family.”