It was a Good News / Bad News night for the National League West first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in their nail-biting 10-9 win over their division-rival second-place Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on Friday night.

The good (great) news is that in addition to that win, 30-year-old international superstar Shohei Ohtani became the first player in MLB history to have a 43-home run / 43-stolen base season – a record that he could add to almost nightly with 27 regular-season games remaining.

Ohtani stole his 43rd base of the season after being hit by a pitch from 29-year-old D-backs starting right-hander Zac Gallen in the top of the second inning with the Dodgers already up 3-2. He slugged his National League-leading 43rd home run of the season, a 380-foot shot to left center field, to lead off the top of the eighth inning to make it 10-5 Dodgers.

“What Ohtani has done is unbelievable,” former Dodgers outfielder and current broadcaster Rick Monday said of Ohtani’s remarkable accomplishments.

The bad (horrible) news is that 36-year-old 10-time All-Star, five-time ERA title holder, former MLB Player of the Year, former Triple Crown winner, former Gold Glove winner, and former Roberto Clemente Award winner Dodgers superstar left-hander Clayton Kershaw may have pitched his last game … ever. Kershaw had to leave Friday’s game after surrendering a solo home run to D-backs right fielder Corbin Carroll to lead off the second inning, having made only 27 pitches (17 strikes) for what he later told reporters was a bone spur on his left big toe.

“Yeah, I just couldn’t really push off (the mound), you know,” Kershaw said postgame. “It’s frustrating when, you know, everything else seems to be feeling great, but I just, no matter what I did, I couldn’t find like a comfortable way to push off on my toe. It’s super frustrating, obviously, put the team in a really tough spot, you know, having the bullpen having to cover eight innings.

“We’ll just have to see how I come out of it tomorrow, not a lot of answers right now,” Kershaw replied when asked what’s next in regards to this injury. Asked if he’s going to have it X-rays or an MRI on his toe, the visibly upset future Hall of Famer answered “We’ll figure all that stuff out tomorrow.”

Friday’s start was the 429th of Kershaw’s remarkable 17-year MLB career. Unfortunately, it may have also been his last.

“There was some awareness, it’s a bone spur,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts answered, when asked if he and his staff were aware of Kershaw’s situation. “It’s obviously not good, there’s swelling, there’s pain, you know, so, he’s doing everything he can to kind of get through things.

“Some starts it feels fine and it’s not impeding, today it certainly was,” added Roberts. “He just, you know, he had nothing, no legs today obviously, and then you start worrying about how it could affect his arm, and so there was just no other alternative but to take him out in that second inning after the Carroll at-bat.

“So, we’re going to see how he comes in tomorrow. We got somebody coming just to potentially, if it is an IL situation because, obviously, they have to cover nine innings, eight innings tonight, given where we were at over the last series, you know, all these guys are going to be down and we pitched guys tonight that we were really trying to stay away from, but we had to finish the game and cover the game. So, that’s kind of the circumstance, so, yeah, we’ll see how he comes in, but I’d be shocked if we don’t have to make a move or two tomorrow,” Roberts concluded.

Although there is certainly every possibility that Kershaw could return to action, it probably wouldn’t be this season. However, should he require surgury to remove the bone spur – a very real possibility – it is unlikely that he would be able to pitch again – ever.

That said, the extremely popular Dallas, TX native and 17-year career Dodger has absolutely nothing left to prove – to anyone – before enjoying eternity in Cooperstown.

Play Ball!

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