Monday night was a special one for Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw as he reached a career milestone, tossing his 2,000th career inning.
That wasn’t the only reason it was special though. Monday night also marked the first time that Kershaw faced his former batterymate and good friend, A.J. Ellis, who is now a catcher for the San Diego Padres.
Ellis has caught nearly 40 percent of Kershaw’s career starts with the Dodgers, which is far more than any of Kershaw’s other catchers.
When asked how it felt to face his former teammate and someone that he had such a special bond with, Kershaw was not happy about it, saying that he hopes he never has to do it again, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“That was miserable,” Kershaw said. “I’ve faced a lot of ex-teammates and friends in this game. But probably nobody that I have the history I have with A.J. We both kind of decided that, hopefully, that was the last time we have to do that.”
Kershaw and Ellis both made their Major League debuts for the Dodgers in 2008 and were teammates for nine years, so it is understandable that Kershaw did not like competing against someone that he is so close with.
The two battles they had both went in Kershaw’s favor though as he got him to ground out to third in the third inning and then Ellis flew out to right in the fifth.
Kershaw had his best outing since coming off the disabled list, allowing just two hits and one walk with five strikeouts in six shutout innings.
Despite not being able to get a hit off his best friend, Ellis is actually enjoying a nice season for the Padres, hitting .295/.400/.371 with a home run and 11 RBI in 38 games.
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