Clayton Kershaw on his final game night at Dodger

TORONTO — As soon as Blake Treinen entered for the ninth inning of Game 5 of the World Series on Wednesday night, Clayton Kershaw dropped his guard and started to look around.

For the earlier three hours, the future Hall of Fame pitcher had been locked in on the game, mentally making ready for a potential reduction look from out in the bullpen.

But when that didn’t come, the 37-year-old Kershaw then let himself chill out, took in the scene of an October night at Chavez Ravine, and soaked up the final moments of what was his final game at Dodger Stadium.

“It’s a weird thought, of like, ‘This is your last game ever there,’” said Kershaw, who announced last month he’ll retire at the end of this season. “And not a sad thought. Honestly, just a grateful thought. Just like, ‘Man, we spent a lot of great times here.’”

Win or lose in Games 6 and 7 of this World Series, Kershaw’s general profession will end this weekend at Rogers Centre in Toronto. But on Wednesday night, he closed the ebook on the ballpark he has called home for all 18 seasons of his illustrious MLB profession.

Dodger Stadium is where Kershaw made his big-league debut in May 2008, as a extremely anticipated left-handed prospect with a big curveball and quiet demeanor. It was the stage for his rise to stardom over the almost twenty years that adopted, as he went on to seize three Cy Young Awards, 2014 National League MVP honors and a profession 2.53 ERA that ranks as the best among pitchers with 1,000 innings in the live ball period.

It is where he skilled some of the most defining moments of his profession, including a no-hitter in 2014 and his 3,000th strikeout earlier this yr. It’s also where he suffered repeated October disappointments, none larger than the back-to-back home runs he gave up in Game 5 of the 2019 National League Division Series.

In other phrases, it was always home for Kershaw, the place he would return to day after day, yr after yr, season after season — no matter the highs or lows, aches and pains, successes or failures.

“I just started thinking about it when the game ended,” said Kershaw, who elected to traverse the sector to get back to the clubhouse after Wednesday’s game instead of the related bullpen tunnel. “I was like, ‘Man, I might as well walk across this thing one more time.’”

About an hour later, Kershaw lingered on the sector a little longer, joined for an impromptu gathering by his spouse, Ellen; their 4 kids; and other household and mates in attendance for his last home game.

“Ellen just texted after and was like, ‘Hey, we got a big crew,’” Kershaw said. “So I was, ‘Well, just go to the field. I’ll try to shower fast so we can hang out.’”

Television cameras caught Kershaw laughing as his children ran the bases, tried to throw baseballs at a hovering drone and loved a diamond that had develop into their own personal childhood playground over the years.

At one level, Kershaw posed with the Dodger Stadium grounds crew for a image — standing on a mound they’d manicured for all of his 228 profession begins in the stadium.

“Honestly, it was awesome,” Kershaw said. “It was the perfect way to do it. Just have everybody out there, running around … It was unplanned, unprompted, but a great memory.”

Kershaw, of course, is hoping to add one more Dodger Stadium reminiscence next week. If the staff can reverse its three-games-to-two deficit in the World Series this weekend in Toronto, it might return to Chavez Ravine for a championship celebration.

If not, though, he’ll have a couple parting moments to cherish, from Wednesday’s postgame scene down on the sector, to his final profession Dodger Stadium outing in Game 4 in which he stranded the bases loaded in the twelfth for one of the most important outs in his complete profession.

“I’m super grateful with how that went, as opposed to the last time before that,” he quipped, having given up 5 runs in his only other Dodger Stadium look this postseason. “You can’t plan any of that stuff. Who knows if it ever works out. But yeah, to get that one last out was pretty cool.”

So, too, was his one last night Wednesday.