Clayton Kershaw Turns Back The Clock Winning 5 Games In August

Last month Clayton Kershaw did something he has done only seven times before, and hasn’t done since the first month of the 2023 season. Heck, it is something he has only done once since the end of 2017. Kershaw won five games in a calendar month. What is remarkable is both his age and the manner in which he went about doing this.

Kershaw first won five games in a month way back in August, 2011 – a long 14 years ago. To put this into perspective, the average length of a Major League Baseball pitcher’s career is less than 11 years. Back in 2011, Kershaw threw 46.1 innings, had nearly a 4/1 strike out to walk ratio, and pitched to a 1.55 ERA.

The big lefty did it again – twice – in 2014. That year was an all-timer for him, as he won both the Cy Young Award and the MVP. In June, he went 6-0 – a record, even for him – throwing 44 innings and striking out 61 while walking only four. He had an 0.82 ERA over the month. But we was not done. In September he went 5-0, with a 1.95 ERA.

As an aside, let’s get away from just calendar months and take a look at this run in 2014 from June 2^nd through the end of the year: 18-1; 163 innings pitched; 123 hits, 25 earned runs allowed; 193 strikeouts vs. 24 walks; 1.38 ERA (1.80 FIP); and a 69% strike percentage over nearly 2,200 pitches.

Or this one from May to September, 2017: 12-0; 106 innings pitched; 70 hits; 20 earned runs allowed; 131 strike outs against 21 walks; 1.70 ERA; and a 68% strike percentage over more than 1,000 pitches.

Okay, back to specific months. In September of 2015, he went 5-1 with a 1.84 ERA.

He picked right back up in May of 2016, going 5-0, giving up a total of five runs, striking out 65 against TWO walks in 49.2 innings.

June of 2017 was somewhat pedestrian by his standards: 5-0; 40.1 innings; 11 runs allowed on seven homers; a 5.7 strikeout to walk rate, and a 2.23 ERA.

He took a nearly six-year hiatus to tend to injuries and age and a global pandemic, and then went 5-1 in April of 2023, with a 1.89 ERA.

We all know that Kershaw has not skirted the ravages of age. He missed last year’s World Series with two lower body injuries that both required off-season surgery. Between strikeout number 2,000 and 3,000, he made no less than ten trips to the IL. His workload has changed. His pitching style has changed. His approach to the game has changed. And yet, he keeps on taking the ball every fifth day and figuring out ways to retire batters.

In the first seven instances wherein Kershaw won five games in a month, he averaged 603 pitches. When he completed the feat in August, he did it throwing just 395. According to OptaSTATS:

But the more things change, the more they stay the same. Of those 395 pitches in August, nearly 66% were strikes. And while that is the lowest percentage of strikes in the eight different months in which he has won at least five games, the man regularly lives between 67-71% (the MLB average is 64%). The man simply pounds the zone.

But the more things change, the more they change. This is Kershaw’s 18^th big league season. He has led the league in strikeouts three different times, and struck out 301 batters in 2015. Prior to August, the lowest number of Ks he accumulated in a five-win month was 39 (in 2011). As stated above, he struck out 65 in May, 2016. But this year, he racked up a total of 19 – the lowest amount by more than a factor of two. And yet, he still managed to win those games with a 1.88 ERA – his best since that miraculous May nine years ago.

In July, Kershaw became the 20^th member of the 3,000 strikeout club. He did it on a night where he struggled to fan just three White Sox batters. And yet he managed to pitch six innings, walked only a single batter, and put his team in a position to win, which is all that he has ever really cared about.

Kershaw has been coy about whether or not this will be his final season. Many have speculated that it will be, but we have heard that before. He undoubtedly loves his teammates, he clearly loves the Dodgers, and he palpably loves to compete. And when you can still win five games in a single month at the age of 37 (when Justin Verlander has only been able to win three all season), it may not be so easy to say goodbye. But whatever next year holds, we should all treasure our time with one of the greatest left-handed pitchers to ever toe the rubber.