Clayton Kershaw waves off his coaches then ends the 8th inning himself, a breakdown

Oct 2, 2020 2.3M views 2:27
MLB 2020

What Happened

In a 2020 regular-season start against the Brewers, Clayton Kershaw cruised through seven scoreless innings and came back out for the eighth. After a one-out walk to Orlando Arcia, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had his pitching coach check the bullpen phone and start to head toward the mound for a conversation. Kershaw waved them off from the rubber, smiling and signaling he didn't need any help. He then picked Arcia off first base, struck out the next hitter on his 93rd pitch, and walked off the mound having closed the inning himself.

Why This Matters

This is a window into the strange dynamic between an ace and a manager who relies on analytics. By 2020 Roberts had built a reputation for quick hooks, and the bullpen was already stirring after a single walk in a scoreless game. Kershaw, with a body of work that makes him one of the best left-handers ever, simply refused the visit and backed it up. The pickoff was the tell: instead of letting the situation snowball, he erased the only baserunner with a quick move to first, then finished the strikeout. There's no rule violation here, just a veteran asserting control of his own outing. For Dodgers fans entering the 2020 postseason, moments like this fed the larger story of whether Kershaw could shake his October reputation, which he eventually did with a title that year.

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Clayton Kershaw is one of the best

pitchers of our generation of any

generation

dude's really good and he goes seven

scoreless versus the brewers he's out