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Clayton Kershaw carries Dodgers to NL West title, eyes bigger prize

LOS ANGELES – They fell into each other's arms, the peeved with the merry, the indignant with the content, and the outraged with the oblivious, the Los Angeles Dodgers together again.

Randy Newman sang and bubbles floated, as this wickedly talented, somewhat peculiar, occasionally combustible and delightfully entertaining ballclub assured itself a regular-season finish on its feet.

The Dodgers are NL West champions again, the last of it decided Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, where they buried the San Francisco Giants 9-1. (The Giants remained on the verge of the NL wild-card game.)

They departed the meaningful portion of their regular season as they started it, with Clayton Kershaw leading them. He left with his 21st win in 27 starts, with a 1.77 ERA and 239 strikeouts in 198 1/3 innings, with fifty-some-thousand people chanting – predicting – "M-V-P! M-V-P!", honoring one of the astounding seasons of this generation.

Clayton Kershaw is headed for his third NL Cy Young Award in four years. (Getty Images)
Clayton Kershaw is headed for his third NL Cy Young Award in four years. (Getty Images)

When he came off the mound after eight innings, he gazed at the mountain of people before him in an old stadium made to feel young again. This game, the Dodgers' 91st win, had unburdened them of an arduous (some of it self-inflicted) regular season and the expectations inherent of a $240 million payroll. It had taken 159 games, many of them, like Wednesday night's, ridden on the shoulders of Kershaw, their ace and conscience.

"It's a good feeling to come off, the 'MVP' stuff, all that, it was cool," Kershaw said. "Nights like tonight, the stadium full, the Giants here, that's baseball, you know?"

In those eight innings, he'd struck out 11 Giants and walked none. In a fairly loopy game, he'd tripled in the fifth inning, bringing home the Dodgers' first run. And Yasiel Puig had homered an inning later, the first home run of his career on an 0-2 count, and he flung his bat and left his hand in the air, almost asking the bat to return to him on its own. And then Puig threw out a reckless Giant – Gregor Blanco, if that's important – at third base, then cocked his right thumb and extended his pointer finger, blam, got him from center field. By the end, a close game had become a rout. The Dodgers had figured it out, a three-hour window into their entire season. Over six months, every team struggles. Every team loses its way. Every team feels its own burden. Five from each league win anyway. The Dodgers struggled, and got lost and burdened themselves more stylishly than most. They tested their manager. They ran off in odd directions. And then Brian Wilson threw a pitch, and it was over, and a grinning Kershaw was among the first over the dugout rail.

It appears he will be the first to lead baseball in ERA over four consecutive seasons. He is a lock to win his third Cy Young Award, those over four seasons. He'd missed six starts in April because of injury, and still he was better than he'd ever been, at 26, and better than anybody else, by far.

"The guy's the best in the game," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Kershaw. "Look at his numbers; I don't know if there's a more deserving MVP. I mean, forget Cy Young. These are stupid numbers he's put up."

Kershaw hugged his wife, Ellen, on the infield grass. He laughed with teammates. He waved at the people who refused to go home. He dashed into the clubhouse to goof around, and toasted his catcher, A.J. Ellis. Ellis had called the curveball that got Buster Posey to ground into a third-inning double play. They chuckled together at the changeup Kershaw threw to Pablo Sandoval, their inside joke, because it is the pitch that eludes Kershaw, the one he really wants but cannot master, that after another 198 1/3 innings proved unnecessary again.

"It's just fun to do this," Kershaw said. "You can't take lightly what we did. We have to appreciate our success. We also know what it's like to fail."

Yasiel Puig homered in the Dodgers' division-clinching victory. (Getty Images)
Yasiel Puig homered in the Dodgers' division-clinching victory. (Getty Images)

That, too, was their burden, playing back to last October, and a kill-shot NLCS loss in St. Louis. Kershaw started that game.

"It kind of speaks of how we were able to do this as a team," Ellis said. "Everybody had their bouts with turmoil, even Clayton, when he was injured. And it speaks to how well Don Mattingly managed this team. And it speaks to our unfinished business."

There's a lot left out there still. The Dodgers await Hyun-Jin Ryu's left shoulder. It's important. They cast an eye toward Puig, their very own wild card. They hope for steadiness from their bullpen, and one more hot streak from Hanley Ramirez, and health for Matt Kemp and Carl Crawford.

"Eleven more wins," Ellis told Ramirez, patting his chest. "Eleven more."

Ramirez nodded. These are the conversations going on in many clubhouses this time of year, the men in them feeling unburdened themselves, and special themselves.

"We did what we had to do to win," Mattingly said.

For that, there were a thousand little acts along the way. A million maybe. More. And there was the one act: Handing the ball to Clayton Kershaw. He is why they are still on their feet.

"Unbelievable," Mattingly said.

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