the end of Clayton Kershaw's career continues to not look that promising not that it's over because it's not Kershaw right now seems to be like any sort of weapon the Empire builds in Star Wars you know at any moment there's a good chance it will blow the hell up and part of that is because nobody is expecting Clayton Kershaw to be the Clayton Kershaw we all came to love he's in the later half of his 30s now he's been more injury prone the last few years I mean at this point all you can hope out of the guy is to be good enough and so far he has been good enough but maybe the Dodgers should just think about not having Kershaw face the Diamondbacks any other team go for it but Arizona it doesn't matter if they're in Arizona or backer Kershaw has practically pitched his whole damn life at Dodger Stadium the snakes are dangerously beating him down now I'm kidding about the whole avoid the Dbacks thing Kershaw is a competitor and he should absolutely try to redeem himself in any circumstance that he can but this dates back to last October when the Dbacks not only ended Kershaw's season but what we thought at the time might be his entire career it's game one of the NL d s between the 100 win Dodgers and 84 win Diamondbacks Clayton Kershaw is on the mound pretty clear how this is going to go right not that the Dodgers were expected to steamroll to the World Series they always kind of struggle in October but they were at least going to take care of Arizona no the team that they won eight out of the 13 games played against them and the team they've dominated especially at home for the longest time well not exactly instead of what was expected this turned into a bloodbath I mean Kershaw just straight up played the role of Apollo Creed while the Dbacks played Ivan Drago ridiculous stuff they just came out swinging and within four pitches it was one to nothing he then has Tommy fam in O2 hole camping him away base hit he then has Christian Walker on two strikes camping him away a smoke baseball Off the Wall two to nothing next up Gabriel Moreno and yet again he gets another hitter on two strikes immediately in front of Mareno 02 low ball won't bite another low ball won't bite gets him swinging but he fouls the high pitch off another low ball won't bite next pitch just cannot put him away home run five to nothing next hitter Jake McCarthy another two- strike count he walks them Evan Longoria Wast zero time smacking another hard hit baseball by the snakes six to nothing and that does it for Kershaw in this game for his season in what would end up being a clean sweep by the Dbacks to eliminate the Dodgers and the next month Kershaw would get surgery on his left shoulder and after some speculation about his career possibly being over he'd sign back with the Dodgers for another short-term contract with a timeline for later in the 2024 season to return and sure enough he's returned and he's about what you would expect he doesn't suck but he's also not vintage Kershaw with all the strikeouts or whatever but okay whatever as long as he's good enough well the Dodgers have strolled in Arizona to face a Dbacks team that I wouldn't say is on their heels for the division they're not but it's definitely a division in reach as much as the Dodgers are the favorite with just a month left of the season they go into the first game of this four game set up four on Arizona so things can change in a lot of ways by the end of this series the Dodgers can blow it open and stretch their lead out more on the Dbacks the Dbacks can make things a lot closer or the two can split the four games and nothing changes so it's a big series full of opportunities all around and taking the ball for game one Clayton Kershaw facing the snakes for the first time since that Death Wish of a game last October Dodgers immediately Jump Ahead two to nothing but just like they did last time the Dbacks get to work lead off double by yaldo Pomo a grounder moves him to third a walk puts ruers on the corners for Josh Bell to drive home bomo 2 to one Jake McCarthy then gets hit by a 90 M hour fast ball aeno Suarez ties the game on a sack fly but bad base running by the Dbacks bails him out but there's no bailing out of the second after the Dodgers jump back out ahead now up 5 to2 Kershaw throws an 87 mph fast ball for strike one things are obviously not right the Dodger Bullpen was already up getting loose at this point and the next pitch a 67 mph curveball looped in that Corbin Carroll smashes for a home run and before the ball even reached the seats Dodger manager Dave Roberts and the team trainer were already out heading toward C on them out immediately getting him taken out he obviously looks uncomfortable and none of this looks good his velocity is even lower than usual he's getting crushed it's like the Dodgers were preparing to yank and knowing this would happen come to find out Kershaw was taken out due to left big toe pain so this in just different ways ends up just like the last time Kershaw faced Arizona except this time it's an Arizona and he has a bad left big toe now rather than a bad left shoulder now obviously a big toe injury is better than another shoulder injury or elbow injury or anything of of that sort but it's still of course not ideal you kind of need your toes to pitch you put pressure on them when you do so hopefully the significance of it isn't bad at least in the long run apparently he's been dealing with a bone spur in his toe with Dave Roberts getting ready for a trip to the injured list for Kershaw going on to say that the game was a huge win but when that came at a cost adding that he feels great about the win but bummed about Clayton and now you're left with the same feeling from last year even if this isn't it and he comes back clearly you cannot rely on Kershaw at all to give you many innings I love Kershaw and I hope that changes I hope he comes out and throws a perfect game next time and dominates the rest of the way and into the postseason but obviously that's not realistic khaw was just knocked out early by the Diamondbacks again they keep getting to him while leaving him with injuries to worry about not ideal but hey third times a charm and if Kershaw does get that third Goal Round against the Dbacks it will have to come in the postseason again as this will be the last time the two face off this year in the regular season but as of now the Dbacks have broken them yet again hopefully just temporarily let me know your thoughts and thank you for watching than