With the Los Angeles Dodgers clinching home-field advantage in their National League Division Series matchup with the New York Mets by defeating the San Diego Padres on Saturday night, it allowed the club to have a little fun in their regular-season finale.
As he did last season, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly allowed one of his players to fill in as manager for the day; Juan Uribe had the honor in 2014, and Jimmy Rollins was at the controls on Sunday. Joining Rollins on the staff for the day was Kenley Jansen, as pitching coach in lieu of Rick Honeycutt.
While the Dodgers as a team didn’t have anything to gain or lose in the contest, Clayton Kershaw took the mound for his final regular-season tuneup only six strikeouts shy of reaching 300 on the year. Mattingly said Kershaw would be allowed to pursue the benchmark, so long as it came within the workload they penciled the left-hander for.
Kershaw struck out four of the first seven batters faced, and reached 300 by getting Melvon Upton Jr., swinging to end the third inning. The reigning National League MVP added one more strikeout in fourth before getting removed (without issue) by Rollins:
