The good news is that the Dodgers won their final game of the 2022 regular season by a score of 6-1 over the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday afternoon behind yet another stellar pitching performance by 34-year-old future Hall of Fame left-hander Clayton Kershaw. It was their franchise-record-setting 111th win of the season – second-most in National League history to only the 116 wins by the Chicago Cubs 1906. Their 111 wins are also tied for fourth most in MLB history with the 1954 Cleveland Indians.

All the Dallas, TX native and Dodgers first-round draft pick in 2006 out of Highland Park High School in University Park TX did in his 5.0 innings pitched on Wednesday was allow one run and hit, a second-inning solo home run to left-center field by 21-year-old Rockies rookie shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, while walking one and striking out nine on 72 total pitches, of which 53 were strikes (73.61%).

“Today was good,” Kershaw said postgame. “I think I felt a little bit better today than I did, stuff-wise, in the last one. Felt like my spin – slider, curveball – were a little bit better, a little bit sharper today, which was good. Overall, thankful for another year.”

“I think it’s surprising, considering the state we were in watching him come off the mound in San Francisco. It didn’t look good at all,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Kershaw’s final start of the 2022 regular season. “To get him back was something that was only a hope at that point in time. And then to get him back and pitch the way he has, it’s icing on the cake.”

Tovar’s home run off of Kershaw was the first of his major league career in his first major league at-bat. As such, the Maracay, Venezuela native now has a remarkable story to tell his kids, grandkids, great grandkids – and everybody else – long after his playing days are over.

But Kershaw wasn’t the only Dodger to set a career milestone on Wednesday. Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman went 3-for-4 on the day, including his 21st home run of the season. He finished the regular season with 199 hits and drove in two, to bring his season RBI total to 100.

Not to be outdone, Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner also slugged his 21st home run of the season, a three-run shot in the bottom of the fifth inning, to give him 100 RBI on the season as well.

Freeman and Turner are the first Dodgers duo with a 100-RBI season since Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier did so in 2009. They are also the first teammates to finish one and two in the MLB in hits since Ichiro Suzuki and Bret Boone did so with the Seattle Mariners in 2001.

In a nutshell (tweet), Freeman and Turner accomplished this during the 2022 regular season:

And now for the bad news.

Dodger fans must now endure five days without “It’s tiiiiime for Dodger Baseball!” – until Game-1 of the 2022 National League Division Series on Tuesday, October 11 at Dodger Stadium.

…and that’s going to be difficult.

Play Ball!

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