The scoreboard showed a blowout—eleven runs for the Los Angeles Dodgers, two homers for Shohei Ohtani, and another day in first place for LA. But while the offense simply exploded, the night belonged to a guy whose greatness has been long etched into LA—Clayton Kershaw.
The 37-year-old Kershaw doesn’t just light up the radar like he used to. Nine miles per hour is now considered ‘hot,’ and some of his once-nasty stuff doesn’t quite hit the same way. But if you think that means the Dodgers’ longtime ace has lost his touch- think again.
Coming off a shoulder surgery, a toe issue, and a knee procedure all in one single year, plus given that the pitching staff is already in deep waters, Kershaw was supposed to ease back gently into the roster. Instead, he is back doing what he has done for decades—baffling the hitters, leading rotations, and reminding everyone of his power. In fact, even Blake Snell, a Cy Young winner himself, was in awe of Kershaw’s recent outing.
Saturday night against the Giants was crucial. The team had dethroned LA from their NL West top spot, so they needed to prove themselves. And well, Kershaw went ballistic with seven scoreless innings and gave up just three hits and struck out five. All while throwing 81 pitches. The fans’ standing ovation was not enough; even Blake Snell got online to repost a Dodgers ‘Kershaw Day Instagram post and added two words: “You nasty.” That’s it. No fluff, no over-the-top praise, just raw respect and acknowledgement.
Snell, meanwhile, is sidelined with injury, and currently, given that top arms are on the same boat, trade talks are on full swing for LA. For now, Kershaw was nothing but appreciative of the ovation by the fans. He mentioned how he doesn’t know how many of these nights he has left. Plus, he even joked that those 12 strikeouts standing between him and 3,000 might take a while. But in the end, the truth is that Clayton Kershaw showed the world that he still has plenty of fight in his arm. And for LA, they need this, more than anything right now—this promise.
Los Angeles Dodgers star’ Ohtani snaps HR drought in style
Meanwhile, while Clayton Kershaw brought the house to its feet with such dominance, another superstar really lit up the sky— seriously, quite literally. Shohei Ohtani hit an uncharacteristic dry spell, going 10 straight games without a home run. It’s a stretch dating all the way back to June 2. But on Saturday night, in the Dodgers’ 11-5 eye-watering rout of the Giants, Ohtani not only broke his slump; he simply blew up.
Ohtani launched two homers, the second of which traveled 384 feet. But what was special was that it even carried a little history with it. The sixth-inning blast marked home run No. 250 for Ohtani’s MLB career. And Ohtani being Ohtani, he didn’t just reach that milestone in a simple way. He even shattered a record while doing so. According to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, he became the fastest player in the history of the sport to clench 250+ home runs and 150+ stolen bases. He did it in just 944 games!
He just beat out Alex Rodriguez’s mark of 977, and it’s even crazier to think that Ohtani has only actually hit in 928 of those games. Because in some of them, he was pitching exclusively. And after the game, even Ohtani said he felt good to hear the crack of the bat again. But for him, the focus is not just the personal wins but the team wins now. “It did feel like I haven’t hit a homer in a while… In terms of the context of the two homers, I think the first one was more significant just being able to score early in the game.”
Through 69 games of this season, Ohtani is slashing. 290/.385/.638 with 25 home runs, 41 RBIs, 71 runs scored, and 11 stolen bases. So do you think Sho-time is back? Let us know in the comments.
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