There isn’t a real baseball fan on the planet who wasn’t thrilled to see future first-ballot Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw back on the mound for the first time since August 30, 2024 – regardless of who their favorite team is – on Saturday evening. Simply put, the three-time Cy Young Award winner, 10-time All-Star, five-time ERA title holder, former Triple Crown winner, former Gold Glove winner, and former MLB MVP and Player of the Year is one of the greatest players to have ever played the game.

Although the 37-year-old Dallas, TX native isn’t the same Kershaw he was when drafted by the Dodgers 19 years ago out of Highland Park High School in Dallas as an 18-year-old, he is still every bit the Kershaw we all know and love. The fact that he was able to go 4.0 innings and make 83 pitches (48 strikes) in his first game back since undergoing left shoulder and left foot and knee surgeries in November is incredible in and of itself.

“I loved being back out there, it felt… it’s just… it’s a special thing to be able to go back and pitch at Dodger Stadium,” Kershaw told SportsNet LA’s Kirsten Watson postgame, this despite the Dodgers eventual 11-9 loss to the Angels of Anaheim. “Obviously, I wanted to pitch better, need to pitch better going forward, but, you know, I think, for me, just to see that… I think there’s some glances of my stuff being there, which is good. The problem tonight was just command, I had really bad command tonight. So, I think I can fix that, which is good, which is an encouraging thing, but obviously, not good enough tonight,” he added.

“I think that the stuff overall, I was impressed with,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said postgame of Kershaw’s return to action. “I thought the velocity was more than it’s been in quite some time, I thought, at times, his slider was good, there was some swing and miss early, at times, the curveball was good, he mixed in a lot of change-ups, which was good.

“I think tonight, the command just wasn’t consistent,” Roberts added. “He got to a lot of two-strike counts and couldn’t put hitters away, where typically that’s his hallmark, when he gets count-leverage he can get a strikeout, and tonight he just couldn’t put guys away. And again, I just thought that, you know, the stuff overall I was really excited about, but just the command, and that’s part of, obviously whether it’s adrenaline or emotions, not pitching in a big league game, all that stuff,” Roberts added.

As for the Dodgers offense in front of a soldout Dodger Stadium crowd of 50,084 on Saturday, there’s this:

On to Sunday’s Freeway Series finale!

Play Ball!