It took more than five hours to accomplish their goal Tuesday night but the Dodgers won to even the series. With a quick turnaround, they hand the ball to Clayton Kershaw with an eye on taking the advantage in what is now a best-of-three scenario. For all the weight the game carries in terms of the season, Game 5 could be the final time Kershaw takes the mound for the home team at Dodger Stadium. It’s been well-documented — especially recently — that the 30-year-old can opt out of the remaining two years of his contract. It’s only human that it would loom large for someone who has spent all of his adult life in the Dodger organization. “Trying not to,” Kershaw said about processing this moment differently because of the opt-out. “I think it’s hard enough to try and win a postseason game. I know more than anybody knows that.” “So I think for me it’s just trying to focus as much as I possibly can on the Brewers and getting ready for tomorrow’s start. And putting everything else on the back burner as best I possibly can.” Kershaw’s postseason this year has been a perfect example of what his career has looked like in October. The left-hander kept the Braves off the board for eight innings in Game 2 of the NLDS, his longest outing ever in the playoffs. Then followed up with his shortest in Game 1 of this series, leaving after getting just nine outs and giving up what turned out to be five runs (four earned). It goes without saying that the Dodgers could really use the guy from the dominant performance over Atlanta. But they just need him to be good in any case. Wednesday will be the 22nd start of his career in the postseason, the most in Dodgers history by a long shot. Second on the list is Burt Hooton with 11. Kershaw has appeared in the NLCS six times in his 11 year career. But the World Series win has still eluded him. Eric Stephen of SB Nation laid out the left-hander’s path to this point — good and bad. “I think with each postseason and not winning a World Series, I think you tack on a little bit more pressure,” Kershaw said. “A little bit more urgency to win, especially when you’re in the market that we’re in, when you’re with the team that we are. I think there becomes a little bit more pressure, for sure, just because we’ve had such a great team. And it’s been a long time since we’ve won one.” Playoff highlights are plenty in Dodger Stadium due to the rich history of the franchise. It’s the 1988 team that usually gets top billing, both for it’s recency and magnitude. That was 30 years ago though and something Kershaw would like to add to. “Yeah, definitely cognizant,” Kershaw explained about the weight of 30 years. “No disrespect to 1988, we hear about that a lot. And I’ve said it before, but we are sick of it. And it’s up to us to do something about it, obviously. We need to create some of our own history, for sure.” “I think it stands as a testament to this organization that they have such great history, that they take a lot of pride in their history, which I’m thankful for. I’m thankful to be a part of that and be in this organization. But at the same time if we win one, we might not have to hear about it anymore, which would be awesome.” No matter what the outcome of Wednesday’s game is, Kershaw is a big part of franchise history and it’s not lost on him. “I’m incredibly grateful,” Kershaw said reflecting on his time with Los Angeles. “I’m just thankful that I’ve gotten to be here this long. I got drafted when I was 18. I got here when I was 20. From 20 to 30, that’s a lot of growing years right there. I’ve gotten married, had two kids, played a lot of baseball. And really have grown up in this city. “The only word that comes to minds is just grateful. I really am. It’s been a great run. And whatever happens I’ll be thankful for that, always.” When the season comes to a close, the left-hander will have a short time to make the decision of opting out or not. It’s hard not to wonder if that decision has already been made. “I have not made a decision,” said Kershaw. “And to my understanding you get ten days after the World Series. So should be a busy ten days.” Game info Time: 2:05 p.m. PT TV: FS1<doc-sep>LOS ANGELES – It wasn’t so much a pivotal Game 5 of the National League Championship Series as it was dueling referendums, Clayton Kershaw versus his doubters and demons and the Milwaukee Brewers battling a century-plus of baseball orthodoxy. Wednesday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, as sunshine gave way to shadows, Kershaw kept strolling out of the home dugout, climbing the hill and luring swings and misses from a Brewers lineup that dominated him just four days earlier. He was trying to pitch the Dodgers toward a second consecutive World Series appearance, of course, but it also felt like a defense of his Hall of Fame caliber career and his profession – that aces matter, that they can be expected to rise to the occasion even in an era when data and decision-makers threaten to marginalize individual greatness on the mound for good. And in what could have been his final start in a Dodgers uniform, Kershaw dazzled, mixing his pitches to perfection, keeping the Brewers off balance and refusing to yield until the Dodgers’ impotent offense could gain the upper hand. MORE MLB: He followed the worst postseason performance of his career with one of his greatest, giving up just three hits over seven innings and striking out nine as the Dodgers claimed a 5-2 victory before 54,502 fans who wondered whether this would be their final home game of the season. It may be yet, but the Brewers’ task is now much larger: Win two games at home against a Dodgers team that battered their bullpen in Games 1-2 at Miller Park. The Dodgers will send out what many regard as their two best pitchers right now - Hyun-jin Ryu and Walker Buehler - to secure the pennant. Their Hall of Fame talent got them poised for the kill, however. "When you get a champion like him that gets hit around a little bit," says manager Dave Roberts, "he's going to respond. And that's what he did today." Kershaw’s postseason legacy is complicated, as many of his biggest pratfalls have been borne of circumstance – a leaky bullpen, an overzealous manager or the simple reality of pitching through two to three rounds of postseason play. Entering Thursday, his postseason marks – 8-8, 4.26 ERA – reflected outings both season-saving and soul-crushing. This NLCS has been black and white: Kershaw was awful in Game 1, excellent in Game 5. Where he earned just five swings and misses from Brewers batters in Game 1, he got 18 on Wednesday – particularly when he needed them the most. Trailing 1-0 in the third, with one out and runners on second and third and the presumed NL MVP, Christian Yelich at the plate: Four pitches and Yelich was down swinging. After pitching around Ryan Braun to load the bases, Kershaw squared off against 35-home run man Jesus Aguilar and an eight-pitch battle unfolded, the sort that ended very badly for Kershaw in Game 1. This time, he found a putaway pitch. Aguilar fouled off five pitches before Kershaw buried a slider in the dirt that Aguilar fanned at to end the threat. The sequence epitomizes the modern Kershaw: His fastball is 3 mph slower than three seasons ago. Command and sequencing and execution are paramount. "I was thankful to get ahead of him in that at-bat," says Kershaw. "And I was trying to stay on the edges as best I could. He's a great hitter. Fouled off some really good pitches. Fortunate to get a slider past him for that last pitch." Kershaw navigated more peril in the sixth, tied 1-1 and down in the count to Braun when he executed a pair of excellent sliders, the second tapped back to Kershaw for a big out. Next came a punchout of Aguilar on a yawning 74-mph curveball. Momentum, Dodgers. They pushed across the go-ahead run in the bottom of the inning on Max Muncy’s RBI single, which chased starter Brandon Woodruff from the game. Wait. That’s non-starter Brandon Woodruff. The real starter, Wade Miley, pitched to just one batter – walking Cody Bellinger – before he was lifted in what could best be described as a ruse by Brewers manager Craig Counsell. In this era of hyper-specialization, Counsell wanted to “capture” as many matchups as he could by luring the Dodgers into starting a lineup thick on right-handers, then switching immediately to the right-handed Woodruff. "It’s just the way they wanted to manage their team and that’s awesome," says outfielder Joc Pederson. "Good for them." By and large, it worked. Woodruff struck out eight and blanked the Dodgers into the sixth, a crucial bit of length just hours after the teams played a 13-inning epic in Tuesday night’s Game 4. But the Dodgers dinged him for single runs in the fifth and sixth, then pushed across three more in the seventh, with Kershaw drawing a walk and scoring on Justin Turner’s single. The Dodgers’ pen was taxed, too – closer Kenley Jansen pitched two innings Tuesday – but Kershaw’s handiwork lightened their load. Ultimately, Kershaw - who can opt out of his contract at year's end - for seven innings was better than a five-man Brewer crew over that same span. One playoff victory won’t end any debates on pitcher usage or one man’s legacy, certainly. For now, it was good enough to push the Dodgers to the brink of another World Series. "There’s definitely a different mojo when he’s on the mound," says Pederson. "He’s Clayton Kershaw. He’s the best." Follow Lacques on Twitter @GabeLacques<doc-sep>The opposing starter had departed after facing only one batter, but there Clayton Kershaw stood, on the mound in the center of Dodger Stadium, a living, breathing anachronism for seven innings in an 5-2 victory in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. The starting pitcher may be going the way of the dodo, but Kershaw is still holding firm, even as his fastball dims and his mileage increases. He is not ready for extinction. The 2018 season has not been easy on Kershaw. He hurt his shoulder. He hurt his back. Some days hurt his pride. Few games looked worse than the opening night of this series, when the Brewers disposed of him in three-plus innings. Undaunted by the worries about his pitch mix and his psyche, he roared back Wednesday, carving up Milwaukee’s lineup with nine strikeouts to give the Dodgers a 3-2 series lead and deposit the team on the doorstep of another World Series. “When you get a champion like him, that gets hit around a little bit, he’s going to respond,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And that’s what he did today.” It is too soon to crown Kershaw. The Dodgers still require five victories to secure the trophy that this city and this franchise have craved since 1988. After a season of discontent, they are on the verge of securing back-to-back pennants for the first time since 1977-1978. Advertisement Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw on what it means to be up 3-2 in the NLCS. To get there, the Dodgers required a vintage effort from their ace. He learned from his missteps in Game 1, reshaping his approach to silence the Milwaukee offense. On a day when the Brewers attempted to reinvent the wheel, Kershaw ran them over. Kershaw permitted one run and three hits. He retired the last 13 batters he faced. In the days between his outings, he sharpened his slider and unearthed his curveball. The two pitches complemented each other while protecting his fastball. The Brewers looked flummoxed as Kershaw trusted the curve early in the count, then defensive as he ended at-bats with sliders. To support him, the Dodgers’ offense deviated from their usual strategy of slugging and slumping by making productive outs, slapping singles and running with abandon. On multiple occasions, Kershaw has joked that if he wins the World Series, he might retire. The chase has lasted a decade now. Along the way, he experienced injury and exhaustion and exultation. Never before has he looked as vulnerable as he has at times this season. Yet here he stands, on the precipice of the oasis. “It wasn’t as easy maybe as last year to get to this point,” Kershaw said. “But if you would have told us in spring training we would have a chance to go back to the World Series, one game to go, we definitely would have taken that.” Hyun-Jin Ryu will start Game 6 on Friday at Miller Park, with Walker Buehler holstered for Game 7. Ryu will face the same pitcher listed as the starter Wednesday for Milwaukee. After their bullpen was torched in the 13-inning marathon of Game 4, the Brewers tried some subterfuge. 1 / 33 Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw is congratulated by Yasiel Puig after scoring a run. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 33 Dodgers Yasiel Puig celebrates while running out an RBI single in the sixth inning. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 33 Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw shows an emotional outburst while pitching against the Brewers in the sixth inning. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 33 Dodgers Clayton Kershaw pumps his fist after inducing Brewers hitter Erik Kratz to ground out to shortstop Manny Machado to end the seventh inning. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 33 Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig is brushed back off the plate with an inside pitch in the eighth inning. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 33 Dodgers Yasiel Puig takes a bow in front of the Dodgers bench after he apparently stole third base in the eighth inning in game five of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium. The play was nullified and he went back to second base. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 33 Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig slides safely to second base after hitting a double in the eighth inning. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 33 Dodgers Clayton Kershaw celebrates after scoring a run against the Brewers in the 7th inning. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 33 Dodgers Yasiel Puig slides safely into second base with an eighth inning double as Brewers second baseman Hernan Perez is late with the tag. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 33 Dodgers Yasiel Puig celebrates hitting a double in the eighth inning. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 33 Clayton Kershaw scores a run on Justin Turner’s RBI against the Brewers in the 7th inning. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 33 Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw raises his arms after scoring on a double by Justin Turner in the seventh inning. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 33 Dodgers Yasiel Puig celebrates while running out an RBI single in the sixth inning. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 33 Dodgers Yasiel Puig celebrates while running out an RBI single in the sixth inning. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 33 Dodgers Justin Turner is congratulated after scoring a run in the sixth inning. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 33 Dodgers pinch hitter Yasiel Puig celebrates his RBI single against the Brewers inthe 6th inning. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 33 Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig hits an RBI single scoring Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Manny Machado in the sixth inning. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 33 Dodgers Max Muncy is tagged out by Brewers shortstop Orlando Arcia after a rundown in the sixth inning.<doc-sep>LOS ANGELES — Clayton Kershaw was magnificent and the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-2 in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday in Los Angeles. The Dodgers are one win away from their first back-to-back World Series trips since 1977-78. Milwaukee struck first against Kershaw with a third-inning RBI double by Lorenzo Cain, then loaded the bases with two out. Kershaw escaped the damage of a 32-pitch inning with a strikeout of Jesus Aguilar, the first of 13 consecutive batters Kershaw retired to end his day after seven innings. “Minimizing damage as best you can as a starting pitcher is huge,” Kershaw said. “In the playoffs you probably don’t get many chances to work out of jams because you’re going to get taken out of the game because the magnitude of the game is so large. “Once I was able to work out of that, really just tried to focus on getting the next guy, next guy, next guy.” This was the ninth start of Kershaw’s postseason career lasting at least six innings while allowing zero or one earned run. That’s tied for the seventh-most such starts in MLB history. Kershaw might not have been able to reach seven innings were it not for the offense snapping out of its funk. Yasiel Puig was in the on-deck circle with one out and a runner on third in the fifth inning, ready to pinch hit for Kershaw had the Dodgers remained down 1-0. But catcher Austin Barnes delivered a game-tying single, starting a stretch for the Dodgers of scoring a run in the fifth, two in the sixth, and two more in the seventh. “I thought that was probably the at-bat of the game,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. The Dodgers were just 6-for-35 (.171) with runners in scoring position through the first four games of the series, but broke out with a 4-for-13 (.308) performance on Wednesday that included RBI singles by Barnes, Max Muncy, Puig and Justin Turner. Milwaukee tried some trickery in starting left-hander Wade Miley on three days rest, only to pull him after one batter in the first inning in favor of the right-handed Brandon Woodruff. The ploy for the Brewers was to hope the Dodgers would stack right-handed batters in their lineup as they did in Game 2, but Dave Roberts instead kept Cody Bellinger and Muncy in his lineup, even batting Bellinger leadoff for the first time in 18 months. Woodruff was magnificent in relief, through his outing was more like an actual start, striking out eight in his 5 innings. He allowed three runs, including two earned, to take the loss. The efforts of both Kershaw and Woodruff were much needed, not even a full day after Tuesday’s 13-inning marathon that saw the Dodgers use nine pitchers and the Brewers use seven. For Kershaw it helped erase the memory of Game 1, when he allowed five runs in three innings in the shortest postseason outing of his career. “You could see the same look that you always see,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “There’s a determination and when you get a champion like him that gets hit around a little bit, he’s going to respond and that’s what he did today.” Game 6 is Friday night at Miller Park in Milwaukee, with Miley starting for the Brewers, for real this time. We think. Hyun-jin Ryu will start for the Dodgers.<doc-sep>
LOS ANGELES -- Every time Clayton Kershaw takes the mound the rest of this month -- however many times that ends up becoming -- the same question will linger in the background: Is this it? Kershaw can opt out of his contract at the end of the season and has yet to make a decision. If he does opt out, he will become a free agent for the first time in his career. And if that ends up being the case, he might -- might -- price his way out of a Dodgers organization that is now run by an exceedingly pragmatic group of executives. The thought might seem implausible, but it was realistic enough for Kershaw to entertain the line of questioning on Tuesday afternoon, 24 hours before he would take the mound in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers. Kershaw was asked what the Dodgers franchise -- the one that made him the seventh overall pick in 2006 -- has meant to him. "I'm incredibly grateful," Kershaw said. "I'm just thankful that I've gotten to be here this long. I got drafted when I was 18; I got here when I was 20. From 20 to 30 -- that's a lot of growing years right there. I've gotten married, had two kids, played a lot of baseball, and really have grown up in this city. The only word that comes to mind is just grateful. I really am. It's been a great run. And whatever happens, I'll be thankful for that. Always." Foremost on Kershaw's mind will be Wednesday's 5:05 p.m. ET first pitch, when he once again confronts the Brewers, this time with the series tied 2-2. The Dodgers pulled off a five-hour, 13-inning win late Tuesday night on a single by Cody Bellinger, and must win again Wednesday to avoid having to take two straight in Milwaukee to move on to the World Series. Teams without home-field advantage that go down 3-2 in a best-of-seven series have won only 25 percent of the time, while those that go up 3-2 have won the series 59 percent of the time. Kershaw pitched masterfully in Game 2 of the NL Division Series against the Atlanta Braves, then struggled in Game 1 of the NLCS, from eight shutout innings on 85 pitches to nine outs -- and five runs -- on 74 pitches. This is life on the barrel. Clayton Kershaw reflected on his time with the Dodgers a bit when talking to reporters Tuesday. "It's been a great run," he said. Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire Kershaw's fastball velocity is down to the low 90s, a product of persistent back issues and an astronomical workload. He managed a 2.73 ERA during the regular season. But his swing-and-miss percentage (23) was down nearly 10 percentage points from just three years ago, and his strikeout rate (8.6 per nine innings) was the lowest since his rookie year in 2008. Kershaw has struck out a combined five batters in his two postseason starts, which means a lot of balls in play -- and a lot left to chance. "It's not like I'm trying to pitch to contact more," Kershaw said. "It's just happening." What ultimately matters, Kershaw said, is "the efficiency in getting outs." Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says he believes Kershaw can still dominate despite pitching to contact. "There is a ball-in-play component," Roberts said, "but I also think there's a quality of contact. ... He expects himself to execute. And when you're sequencing the right way, and when you're executing, there's punch in there. Probably not as much as there has been in the past, but there's soft contact. And those are outs, typically. So when he's right, he's still going to log outs. And that's the No. 1 goal that I know that he wants -- to get outs." Kershaw has recorded outs in ways few Dodgers, if any, ever have. MLB Postseason on ESPN Radio From the first pitch of every series to the last out of Game 7, you can catch the entire MLB postseason on ESPN Radio. Listen » Among those who have logged at least 1,500 innings for the Dodgers, he ranks second to Jeff Pfeffer -- a man who pitched before the Great Depression -- with a 2.39 ERA. He ranks seventh with 153 wins and 12th with 2,096⅓ innings, all while making seven All-Star teams, winning three Cy Young Awards and claiming an MVP.