Los Angeles Dodgers: Bold predictions for Clayton Kershaw in 2019
By Jason Reed
2. Clayton Kershaw completely rids his postseason demons
The biggest argument against Clayton Kershaw over the last six years has been his inability to get it done in the postseason. While it is expected that it is going to be tougher in October, Kershaw has been downright bad for most of his postseason career.
Right now, his career postseason ERA sits at 4.32, definitely a high number for a pitcher of Kershaw’s caliber. He has had several bad moments in big games, such as in 2014 against the St. Louis Cardinals (twice) or against the Houston Astros in Game 5 of the 2017 World Series.
Kershaw’s postseason career is so strange as well as he will completely dominant one game and then completely drop the ball the next. Sometimes the moment seems to be too big for Kershaw, which leads to these staggering stat lines.
His overall production is not awful, it’s just that the games he is bad in he is really bad.
However, Kershaw can rid all of this with just one or two solid performances in October, especially if he wins a game for the Dodgers with his pitching in the World Series.
David Price was in the exact same boat and he came out and had a handful of good appearances in the postseason. Price now has that monkey off of his back and his legacy has changed from a guy that used to be bad in the postseason to one that has flipped the script.
Randy Johnson wasn’t a great postseason pitcher until late in his career, either. This is going to be the year in which Kershaw finally comes up big and completely changes the narrative for the rest of his career.