Clayton Kershaw turned in his final outing of Spring Training last Sunday against the Los Angeles Angels in what was a strong overall performance to help the Los Angeles Dodgers get a win.
Kershaw pitched six innings while giving up just three hits and striking out seven. The only slight blemish happened due to pitch timer violations, which ended up not affecting his outing, but are something Kershaw needs to be more aware of moving forward.
Home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez called Kershaw for the infraction, which led to the two having a discussion about the rules. “How fast was that game? That was nuts,” Kershaw said in reference to the pitch clock before discussing the conversation with Marquez.
“One, I deserved the infraction. The other one, my understanding was with nobody on base, if I step off, it’s no big deal as long as I threw the pitch within the timeframe. I stepped off and I looked up, and there was seven seconds but the clock turned off.
“I think it was more of like the clock should’ve kept going. He tried to make his best judgment and thought that I wasn’t going to make the pitch in time. During the season the pitch clock should just keep running. He said it was his judgment on that one. I don’t think I would get an infraction in the season.
“The other one I just didn’t see the signs. It was hard for me to see. First night game here in a while, so I’ve got to get used to that. If you don’t get the signs I guess you’re kind of in trouble.”
Despite the two pitch clock violations, Kershaw is starting to get used to the timer overall and jokingly expressed some concern for how it will affect Dodgers fans and concession sales.
“I wouldn’t consider it awkward,” he said. “I think we’re used to it now. I think it’s getting what we want. The game today was 2 hours and whatever minutes. Hopefully they sell enough beer.”
Kershaw does have concern with the pitch timer and how it can change the bigger moments of games, especially in the postseason.
“It’s going to be more frustrating if you get an infraction in a big moment,” Kershaw said. “You don’t want playoff games decided by that. You don’t want big, important games down the stretch decided by it. You don’t want any game decided by that. I don’t think we’re going to get any grace though, so we’ve just got to figure it out.”
Clayton Kershaw praises Dodgers fans
With the pitch timer speeding up games, fans who show up late to the game are going to miss more of the action, and other fans have specifically pointed to this affecting Dodgers fans.
But Kershaw isn’t worried about Dodgers and offered some praise to the group that has led MLB in attendance for the past nine seasons.
“Yeah, they’re going to get here like in the sixth inning,” Kershaw initially quipped. “No, I’m just kidding. Everybody says that about Dodger fans, but I feel like it’s pretty well packed by game time. Obviously, there’s traffic and stuff, but I feel like our stadium is pretty filled for the most part.”
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