Dave Roberts and the Los Angeles Dodgers are currently locked in a dogfight with the San Diego Padres in Game 2 of the NLDS, with the Padres currently leading the game 4-3 in the top half of the seventh inning. However, the Dodgers do not have Clayton Kershaw on the mound anymore after he was pulled at the conclusion of the fifth inning.

Kershaw did not have the best of performances, and he appeared to labor through his start. He threw 80 pitches (with only 55 going for strikes) in five innings and he allowed three earned runs, one on a towering shot by former teammate Manny Machado to deep left field. On the other hand, yet another former teammate, Yu Darvish, is still on the mound for the Padres.

Nonetheless, Dave Roberts was pleased with the 34-year old's admirable performance even if it wasn't quite the best of what Clayton Kershaw is capable of.

“I just told him that that was good, and I just really, I gave him a lot of credit for grinding and getting us a couple of zeroes in the fourth and fifth innings. Tonight certainly was a grind for him across the board. You saw the at-bats they were taking on him, a couple innings of stress early, but for him to kind of reset, give us five innings, get it to the bullpen, gives us a good chance to win the ballgame,” Roberts told Tom Verducci in an interview during the middle of the game.

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Clayton Kershaw does not have the best of reputations when it comes to performing under the bright lights of October baseball. His performance during the 2014 playoffs, in particular, was not befitting of a pitcher who was deemed fit to win the NL MVP, an accolade typically reserved for position players.

However, Kershaw turned his fortunes around in 2020, and he pitched to the dominant tune of a 2.93 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 30.2 innings worth of work, leading the Dodgers to a much-awaited World Series title. The Dodgers will be hoping that Kershaw could channel his typical brand of shutdown pitching further into the postseason should they make it past the Padres.