When Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw did not come out to pitch the ninth inning of last night’s game there were undoubtedly many Dodger fans who were upset that the young left-hander was denied a shot at collecting what would have been an MLB-leading seventh complete game this season – especially when Kershaw had thrown only 89 pitches on the night. But once you get past the emotional part of the seemingly unreasonable decision, you begin to realize that Mattingly made the right call in the eventual 9-4 Dodgers victory over the Padres.

“He definitely wanted to finish,” Mattingly told reporters after the game. “I just didn’t feel like it was the right thing.”

Those watching the game on TV, at least those who could, saw Kershaw get visibly upset when Mattingly broke the news to him.

“He’s not bad [about arguing], he just wants to pitch,” added Mattingly. “He looks at it as ‘I can throw a complete game every time out.’ He knows his pitch count is low, he knows he’s got an extra day [off this week], he’s coming off an extra day, all those factors, and so he was just telling me that. Like I told him, ‘I think it was the best thing for the team.'”

And what was Kershaw take on this little dugout discussion?

“I wanted to [go back out], yeah” said Kershaw. “But Donnie gave me the old ‘it’s not best for the team’ speech so what are you gonna do. You can’t argue with that. I don’t have a comeback for that one.”

Kershaw was his normal brilliant self on Monday night allowing one earned run on three hits while striking out eight and walking two in his eight innings of work. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

As for the crazy three-error play, Kershaw was probably less amused by it that anyone else.

“You can laugh about it now ’cause we won pretty good,” said Kershaw. “Luckily it wasn’t zero-zero or anything like that.”

As the play unfolded (or perhaps unraveled is a better term) Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully called Kershaw jumping out of harm’s way in a (then) 8-1 ballgame “the smartest play of the night.” But Kershaw readily admitted that it was actually more confusion than cerebral.

“I didn’t know where the plate was,” Kershaw said. “That’s why I kinda jumped out of the way, I thought I might have been right on top of it or something, so I was probably out of position. Maybe I could have had him there, it was probably my fault there. Obviously I felt like we could have had a bunch of outs. It’ll probably be on [ESPN’s] ‘Not Top-10’ for awhile.

“I probably should have known where I was, but… a… you know…  it’s… I don’t know… yeah… I guess so.” Kershaw added with a chuckle.

Kershaw tosses the ball in the air in disgust after Monday night’s Benny Hill-like three-error play. It was only the fourth time in MLB history where three throwing errors were made on a single play and it will undoubtedly be shown on blooper videos for years to come at every ballpark in the country – except Dodger Stadium, of course. (Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

The reality, of course, is that Mattingly’s decision was absolutely the right one and even Kershaw realizes this. With three starts remaining in the regular and who knows how many in the postseason (and probably on short rest), the Dodgers need to do everything they can to keep their soon-to-be three-time Cy Young award winner as fresh as possible.