Even at 34 years old, Los Angeles Dodgers star Clayton Kershaw showed last year he can still be a dominant hurler in MLB.
The only thing preventing him from scoring a multi-year deal was a forearm injury that took him several weeks of his 2021 campaign and limited him to just 121.2 frames.
The Dodgers brought him back on a one-year, $17 million deal.
You don’t make $17 million in one year while being bad at what you do, do you?
Kershaw, therefore, is eager to show not only that his arm issues from 2021 are fully behind him, but also, that he can still pitch at an ace level well into his thirties.
He is taking the mound for the first time this season against the Minnesota Twins.
To kickstart his season, he struck out a formidable opponent: Twins center fielder Byron Buxton.
Kershaw Is Off To A Strong Start
Buxton, known for his legendary wrists and fantastic center field defense, looked helpless against a Kershaw slider on Wednesday afternoon.
Dodgers writer Blake Harris posted a video of the Buxton strikeout.
Clayton Kershaw's first strikeout in year 15 pic.twitter.com/2684uxGy6w
— Blake Harris (@BlakeHarrisTBLA) April 13, 2022
As Harris states, it’s year 15 of Kershaw’s career, one that has delivered him multiple Cy Young awards, an MVP award in 2014, and a World Series title in 2020.
He fooled Buxton with an 86 mph slider, almost in the dirt, identifying that the Twins’ slugger is much more dangerous if thrown high fastballs.
The game, oddly enough, is Kershaw’s first against Minnesota during his career.
It’s off to a good start: he threw four hitless, perfect innings with seven strikeouts at the moment of writing this article.
He seems determined to improve upon last year’s 3.55 ERA and 1.02 WHIP.
If he avoids major injuries, he will almost certainly achieve that.
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