Unless the Dodgers are trying to pull off the biggest optical illusion of the century, there is no way that Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, who will celebrate his 31st birthday on March 19, is going to make his ninth consecutive Opening Day start on Thursday, March 28 against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Dodger Stadium. The numbers simply do not add up.

When the sun rises on Monday, Opening Day 2019 will be exactly 25 days away. Even if Kershaw were to make his Spring Training debut on Monday, and on a normal five-day rotation, the best case scenario would net him five Spring Training starts between now and Opening Day to build himself up to game-ready shape; doable, but highly unlikely.

Unless…

Unless part of that illusion is to have Kershaw be “an opener” – i.e., start the game (and the season) but pitch only one or perhaps two innings and then hand the ball off to a series of relievers. Again, doable, but unlikely.

A more likely scenario would be for Kershaw to begin the season on the Injured List and remain at Camelback Ranch for extended Spring Training and rejoin the team later, after he has built up his innings and barring any setbacks. This would allow the Dodgers to add fellow left-hander Julio Urias to the Dodgers 25-man Opening Day roster (and starting rotation) in place of Kershaw. As most Dodger fans know, the 22-year-old Culiacan, Mexico native has been having a phenomenal spring and has clearly fully recovered from his June 27, 2017 left shoulder surgery.

Following Friday night’s game between the Dodgers and Padres at Camelback Ranch, SportsNet LA’s Alanna Rizzo spoke with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, asking him for an update on Kershaw, who had “played catch” earlier in the day, with plans to do so again on Saturday morning.

“I talked to Clayton actually after he threw and he said that he let it rip a little bit, he said he was about 80 percent as far as letting-it-go effort and he came out of it feeling good,” Roberts said. “So I think the next thing is [Saturday] he’s going to do it again and try to, you know, stretch it out, give it a hundred percent, and see where we’re at.”

It didn’t happen … at least not that anyone is aware of.

According to longtime Dodgers beat writer Ken Gurnick, Roberts – nor anyone else – provided an update as to “where we’re at.”

This per Gurnick:

The Dodgers offered no update on Clayton Kershaw’s Saturday activity. The Los Angeles ace had been scheduled to play catch for a third consecutive day as he recovers from left shoulder inflammation.

While it is often said that ‘No news is good news,’ it is difficult – if not impossible – to see it this way with Kershaw.

The math simply doesn’t add up.

    *    *    *    *    *   

UPDATED: 3-3-19 at 11:00 a.m. PT

These two tweets were posted on Sunday morning by Gurnick and Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett:

Gurnick also posted this:

“Kershaw is going to play catch today (Sunday), stretch it out, ramp up the intensity. He feels good,” said Roberts. “Ever since last Monday, with some of the rest we’ve built in, he’s in a good place.”

Fingers crossed.

*    *    *    *    *    *