It is difficult, if not impossible, to wrap your mind around anything other than how absolutely dominating Clayton Kershaw was in his spring training debut on Thursday afternoon against the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Ranch. Not only did the reigning NL Cy Young award winner and NL MVP retire all six batters he faced in order, he struck out two of them and never allowed a ball to be hit out of the infield – and did so on exactly 20 pitches. And although it was only a spring training game and only the first two innings that Kershaw has pitched since that painful NLDS Game-4 loss to the Cardinals that ended the Dodgers 2014 season, Dodger fans will always wonder if Kershaw might have tossed a perfect game on Thursday if allowed to continue – which of course would have been ridiculous for Dodgers manager Don Mattingly to allow.

But there was another Kid-K who pitched on Thursday afternoon. And while his one inning of work will mostly be forgotten except by a select few, you can bet that he will never forget it. It was in the bottom of the ninth inning and that pitcher was Jeremy Kehrt.

Chances are that most Dodger fans had never heard of Jeremy Kehrt until he entered Thursday’s game. But being that the game was televised live on Sportsnet LA (and tape-delayed on MLB Network), they know who he is now – at least as much about him as Charlie Steiner and Rick Monday shared about him, which wasn’t much. And even though Kehrt gave up a solo home run to White Sox left fielder Courtney Hawkins on the very first pitch he threw – a fastball up in the zone that ended the Dodgers bid for a combined shutout – he made one pitch that undoubted caught the attention of every scout in the ballpark and that of Don Mattingly and Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt.

On an 0-2 count to White Sox replacement third baseman Matt Davidson, Kehrt broke off a curveball that Davidson swung at and had absolutely no chance of hitting – or even fouling off for that matter. If Kershaw’s devastating curveball is considered “Public Enemy Number One” (as Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully calls it), then Kehrt’s bender had to be Public Enemy Number Two. It was just plain nasty.

Kehrt’s curveball that struck out White Sox first baseman Matt Davidson was absolutely filthy.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

So who is this Kehrt guy and where did he come from?

As it turns out, Jeremy Kehrt has been around the block a time or two. He was signed by the Dodgers in 2014 as a minor league free agent but that doesn’t even begin to tell the story about the 29-year-old Plainfield, Indiana native.

Kehrt was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 47th round of the 2008 First Year Player Draft out of the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville. Knowledgeable baseball fans know that they don’t even have that many rounds in the draft anymore. He then spent the next six seasons in the Red Sox organization, having made it as high as the Triple-A level for four seasons. He was twice named the Red Sox minor league Pitcher of the Week by SoxProspects.com and was named to the prestigious Arizona Fall League in 2011.

After spending time between Double-A and Triple-A in 2014, the Red Sox traded Kehrt to the Dodgers for cash. In his brief time with the Dodgers Double-A affiliate Chattanooga Lookouts, Kehrt appeared in five games (four as a starter) and posted a 2-0 record with a very impressive 1.69 ERA. But in spite of his excellent record and ERA, Kehrt struggled a bit with his control striking out eight but walking seven in his 21.1 innings of work for a rather unattractive K/BB ratio of 1.67 and a WHIP of 1.667. He appeared in the Southern League Championship Series for the Lookouts but did not fair well, allowing a devastating three-run home run to Viosergy Rosa of the Jacksonville Suns (Marlins).

But the Dodgers liked what they saw in Kehrt and re-signed him to a one-year minor league contract this past off-season, thus setting the stage for his MLB spring training debut as a Dodger on Thursday afternoon. While Kehrt undoubtedly wishes that he had that first-pitch fastball to Hawkins back, he recovered nicely getting White Sox left fielder Dan Black to fly out to left, allowed a single to White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson, struck out Davidson on that nasty breaking ball and got White Sox catcher George Kottaras to ground out to first to end the game and preserve the win for Kershaw.

In all honesty Kehrt has no chance of making the Dodgers Opening Day roster, but his intestinal fortitude and perseverance make him a strong candidate to begin the 2015 season at Triple-A Oklahoma City. And as we all know, Triple-A is only a sore shoulder or sore elbow away from Dodger Stadium.