Revisiting Clayton Kershaw’s most memorable moments against SF Giants

LOS ANGELES On the final day of the regular season a -year-old Clayton Kershaw jogged in from the bullpen at AT T Park to pitch the bottom of the sixth Despite two hits and an intentional walk the left-handed rookie with the high- s heater and knee-buckling curveball tossed a scoreless inning In the ensuing years the Giants became all too familiar with Kershaw s propensity for putting up zeros Kershaw will make the final regular-season start of his Hall of Fame career on Friday evening at Dodger Stadium and appropriately enough that outing will be against the Giants He s faced them more than any other opponent games starts and he s had success against them more than any other opponent ERA strikeouts The two parties have had their share of battles over the last seasons Kershaw was on the winning end more often than not but that didn t mean the Giants didn t also get in their licks Here are specific of the bulk memorable moments in the lineage of Kershaw versus the Giants April The first start Kershaw s first appearance against the Giants was the aforementioned relief appearance on Sept but this was his first start in the rivalry It was in front of an attendance of Kershaw struck out batters over seven innings and outdueled Matt Cain Kershaw allowed one lone hit that night a solo home run to Bengie Molina July Tensions flare in Los Angeles Kershaw has been suspended only once in his career a punishment he earned on a July night at Dodger Stadium against the Giants In the bottom of the fifth Tim Lincecum inadvertently hit Matt Kemp Despite the unintentional nature of the plunking both benches were warmed when Kemp began veering towards the mound after being hit Two innings later Kershaw hit Aaron Rowand a beaning that was deemed intentional Kershaw as well as manager Joe Torre and bench coach Bob Schaefer were ejected from the ballgame The domino effect of that move played out in the top of the ninth when Don Mattingly the Dodgers acting manager infamously was forced to make a bullpen change after making two trips to the mound The Giants took advantage of the blunder scoring three runs in the ninth to steal a win in Chavez Ravine The following day Kershaw was handed a five-game suspension and fined an undisclosed amount March Ace versus ace The primes of Tim Lincecum and Clayton Kershaw never truly aligned Lincecum was the best pitcher in baseball in and winning Cy Youngs in both years then led the Giants to their first San Francisco title in Kershaw s first truly elite season was this Opening Day matchup kicking off his first Cy Young campaign Lincecum was great on this evening allowing one unearned run over seven innings with five strikeouts Kershaw though was just a bit better pitching seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts to one walk Lincecum and Kershaw faced each other four times this season and on all four occasions Kershaw walked away with the win Lincecum was exceptional in these battles allowing four runs over innings ERA with strikeouts Kershaw though was unhittable allowing one earned run over innings ERA with strikeouts April Kershaw does it all For the second time in three years the Giants rolled into Dodger Stadium as the defending World Series champions for Opening Day For the second time in three years Kershaw silenced San Francisco s offense en highway to beginning a Cy Young campaign Kershaw effectively did everything for the Dodgers on this afternoon With his arm he pitched a shutout With his bat he slugged a solo home run off George Kontos that broke a scoreless tie the first and only home run of his career It was complete and total domination for Kershaw who became the first pitcher to throw a shutout and hit a home run on opening day since Bob Lemon on April May Bumgarner goes yard Beginning on April Kershaw and Madison Bumgarner went head-to-head on occasions Kershaw did Kershaw things innings ERA strikeouts but Bumgarner held his own innings ERA strikeouts There was no shortage of pitcher s duels between the two lefties but the majority of memorable moments of their head-to-head battles involved Bumgarner in the box and Kershaw on the mound In the bottom of the third Kershaw tried to sneak a middle-middle fastball by Bumgarner who already had six career home runs entering that at-bat Bumgarner put barrel to ball and sent it over the left-field fence becoming the first pitcher to ever homer against Kershaw Less than a year later Kershaw served up a similarly-placed four-seamer and Bumgarner again lifted off joining the unique list of hitters to take Kershaw deep twice Sept Kershaw sends Los Angeles to postseason The circumstances of this championship were clear If the Dodgers won they clinched the NL West By the end of the night the Dodgers were popping champagne as Kershaw delivered a masterpiece nine innings no runs one hit one walk strikeouts Kershaw also made an impact with his bat coaxing pitches out of Bumgarner in the top of the fifth before grounding out Due in part to that battle Bumgarner failed to pitch at least six innings for the first time in two months Aug Slater goes deep twice The list of batters who can claim legitimate ownage against Kershaw is small Austin Slater owns a prominent spot on that list There have only six players with at least four home runs against Kershaw in the regular season Adam Dunn Fernando Tatis Jr Charlie Blackmon Christian Walker Nolan Arenado and Slater For Slater two of those home runs were hit in one match at an empty Dodger Stadium during the COVID-shortened season Slater s first blast of the evening was a true wallscraper in the top of the third barely clearing the center-field fence to give the Giants an early - lead In the top of the fifth Slater once again sent an offering from Kershaw over the center-field fence becoming the only Giant to hit multiple homers off Kershaw in the same tournament There are players who have had at least plate appearances against Kershaw in the regular season And among that group no participant has an OPS higher than Austin Slater s