Clayton Kershaw won the Cy Young Award ... again. (Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports)
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Clayton Kershaw had much to celebrate this winter. He became the first player since 1968 to win both the Cy Young and MVP awards in the National League. And he became a father for the first time when his daughter, Cali Ann, was born in January.
But something clearly bothered him. In fact, he acknowledged that with the last line of his Cy Young and MVP acceptance speech.
“My last thank you goes to the St. Louis Cardinals,” Kershaw said. “Thank you for reminding me that you’re never as good as you think you are.”
Kershaw has been the best pitcher in baseball over the past four years. But he has not carried that success over into the postseason where the St. Louis Cardinals have beaten him in an elimination game each of the past two years. Kershaw lost both of his starts in last year’s first-round matchup.
“If somebody had told me anybody would beat Clayton twice in one series I’d have said, ‘No way,'” Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax said after arriving in Dodgers camp last week. “I probably would have cursed and said ‘No way.’ But, you know, it happens.”
Kershaw’s failures against the Cardinals were put in stark relief by Madison Bumgarner’s historic October run as the San Francisco Giants won the World Series title. But Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis — Kershaw’s close friend — said he doesn’t think Kershaw has anything to prove.
“He just ran into two tough innings,” Ellis said. “This is really hard to even talk about because we’ve turned the page to 2015. He dominated them for 12 innings during that series. Absolutely dominated them.
“He just ran into two innings against one of the best grinding teams in all of baseball. So I don’t think he has anything to prove. It’s hard to prove anything more than being the best pitcher of our generation.”
The best pitcher of his generation, Koufax said he is not concerned that the postseason will remain a black mark on Kershaw’s career.
“I don’t think so,” Koufax said. “Because I think he’ll be in a lot more postseasons and I think it will be totally turned around. The best pitcher in baseball is not going to have that happen to him, probably not ever again.”
