As Dodger fans, every fifth day is like Christmas morning for us – at least between the months of April through September. It is Kershday, when we get to witness Clayton Kershaw – the undisputed greatest pitcher on the planet – continue to sculpt his own Hall of Fame plaque. We are so very spoiled by the continuing greatness of the Dodgers left-hander that we sometimes take what the 29-year-old Dallas, Texas native is doing for granted.

On Sunday afternoon in front of a crowd of 41,524 at Dodger Stadium that included the last greatest pitcher on the planet, Dodgers Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, Kershaw chiseled away at his future plaque of immortality by winning his MLB-best 14th game of the season and lowering his earned run average to 2.19, a mere .09 behind current MLB ERA leader Max Scherzer … for now.

Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax joins in to give his dear friend Clayton Kershaw a standing ovation after the final out of Sunday’s 5-2 win over the Kansas City Royals at Dodger Stadium.
(Photo courtesy of LA Dodgers)

Even though Kershaw did not throw a no-hitter or even a shutout on Sunday, he did throw a complete game and also did something that, when you stop and think about it, is quite possibly even more difficult than throwing a no-hitter or even a perfect game – he allowed a three-ball count to exactly one of the 33 total batters he faced, ONE. That one lucky batter was Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar, the very last batter that Kershaw faced in the Dodgers 5-2 win.

Oh sure, there are some… well, maybe one or two, who will argue that the 6′-4″ / 228-pound left-hander allowed two runs on six hits including a two run home run to Kansas City Royals slugger Eric Hosmer (who ended up collecting three of those six hits himself), but Kershaw also struck out 13 Royals batters without allowing a single walk in his (and the Dodgers) first complete-game win of the season, and he did so on only 99 pitches of which 73 were strikes. That’s 74 percent of them.

As for the lucky Alcides Escobar? Kershaw struck him out to end the game.

There is greatness and then there is Clayton Kershaw.
(Photo courtesy of LA Dodgers)

There simply is no other way to describe Clayton Kershaw than ‘Beyond Greatness.’

Merry Christmas.