Dodgers ace Kershaw eyes crowning glory
Clayton Kershaw is determined to crown a decade of dominance with a maiden World Series title after helping the Los Angeles Dodgers into their first appearance in the baseball classic in nearly 30 years. After 10 seasons in Major League Baseball, Kershaw has already done enough in pure statistical terms to be regarded as one of the greatest pitchers in history. The towering Texan southpaw has a 144-64 career record, with an earned run average (ERA) -- the average number of earned runs conceded per nine-inning game -- of just 2.36, placing him 24th in the all-time rankings. No other active pitcher comes close to making the top 100. But Kershaw's collection of individual honours, which includes one National League Most Valuable Player award, three NL Cy Young awards and seven All-Star selections, has one glaring omission: a World Series. The 29-year-old now has the opportunity to fill that gap in his CV after the Dodgers dethroned the reigning World Series champions the Chicago Cubs on Thursday, wrapping up a 4-1 series win with an 11-1 rout at Wrigley Field. Kershaw, who restricted the Cubs to one run from three hits across six innings, is now preparing for Game 1 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium next Tuesday, where he will face either the New York Yankees or the Houston Astros. "When you're a kid, you just hope you make it to the big leagues," Kershaw said following Thursday's victory. "So to get to say you're going to play in the World Series, it's an incredibly special moment. Up there with getting married and having kids, it's right up there with one of the best days of my life." - 'All we play for' - Kershaw admits, however, that without a World Series victory, his career will feel incomplete, even joking that he may retire if the Dodgers go on to win their first title since 1988. "Winning the World Series is really all that we play this game for," he said. "All the individual stuff is great, but at the end of the day, I just want to win a World Series. If we win, I might retire, I might just call it a career. "It's a special thing, and I know that I'm not taking it for granted." A World Series ring would also lay to rest the debate about Kershaw's ability to deliver in the postseason, where his ERA of 4.40 contrasts sharply with his overall career average of 2.36. Dodgers general manager Dave Roberts meanwhile spelt out what the team's advance to the World Series meant to Kershaw. "There are just so many things that I could probably touch on," Roberts said. "The first thing that comes to mind is Clayton and how long he's been a Dodger and how much he's wanted this opportunity to win a championship. "He's done everything he can individually on the baseball field. But the one thing that he's missing is a championship." Kershaw's teammates point to the pitcher's example behind the scenes in bringing the locker-room together. "It's easy to say that the most impressive thing is when he takes the ball every fifth day," said the Dodgers' talismanic third baseman Justin Turner. "But for me, the more impressive thing is watching him go about his business on the four other days, and the work that he puts in and the routine and the tireless effort and training and amount of stuff that goes into his day, each and every day, to lead up to that start. "It's something that I've never seen out of anyone in my entire life."
