The batters that dealt with Kershaw still bear in mind the 2006 like it was the other day.
DALLAS– In honor of Clayton Kershaw getting to 3,000 strikeouts on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, we’re re-sharing this post from 2023 regarding his excellent video game at Highland Park in 2006.
Lew Kennedy was greater than satisfied to speak about one of the most renowned ballplayer he ever before trained. However probably it’s a testimony to Clayton Kershaw that Kennedy, when inquired about the lefty bottle’s epic efficiency for Highland Park Secondary school, required to request for information.
Certainly, Kershaw was as leading in senior high school as one may picture a three-time Cy Youthful champion would certainly be.
Now, at 35, Kershaw will certainly take the sphere for the Los Angeles Dodgers in Video Game 1 of the National Organization Department Collection on Saturday evening, aiming to chase after an additional Globe Collection title and more engrave his location amongst the video game’s all-time greats.
However no postseason efficiency is most likely to match the one Kershaw placed on screen on May 19, 2006, when the Highland Park Scots dealt with the Justin Northwest Texans in the 3rd round of the Course 4A state playoffs.
Kershaw, the beginning bottle for the Scots that spring night, dealt with 15 players.
And he started out each of them, finishing an ideal video game that finished at an early stage a run policy.
Oh, and he likewise struck a crowning achievement to aid his reason.
” With skill like that,” Kennedy claimed, “you attempt not to hinder. He makes an excellent trainer out of you.”
Nearly two decades later on, the players that dealt with Kershaw still remember what took place. Or, for them, what really did not.
” The individual was simply gassing it,” claimed Tyler Tillotson, after that an elderly 2nd baseman for Northwest. “He made us appear like little young boys. And after that he went down a bomb on us.”
Tillotson, like the remainder of his colleagues, went hitless versus Kershaw. However the Texans had actually gotten in the video game with hope, having actually directly shed to Highland Park the evening prior to. They were no cupcake, and after making it through the initial 2 rounds of the playoffs, they were aiming to progress once again.
However Kershaw, that tossed a heater right into the mid-90s and combined it with ravaging off-speed pitches, “made us appear like we never ever played baseball prior to,” claimed Shane Hardy, an additional elderly for Northwest.
” We were an actually great group,” Hardy claimed. “He made an actually great group appearance silly.”
Kershaw went into the video game with a 0.59 period and 109 strikeouts in 47.2 innings. As leading as he was that period, it had not been a warranty he would certainly control Northwest: Kershaw was coming off an injury and it had not been particular if he would certainly begin. And when he did, it had not been particular if he would certainly be sharp.
Kershaw trimmed with the initial 3 batters, however the Texans functioned him for 17 pitches, consisting of a complete matter, and they handled to strike 3 nasty spheres.
Yes, nasty spheres were bench for success that night.
Northwest made get in touch with 6 even more times, and 6 even more times it coincided tale: A nasty sphere or pointer, absolutely nothing that would certainly have made it out of the infield.
Northwest trainer Che Hendrix, at one factor, tweeted at the umpire regarding the strike area.
” I informed him, ‘Every little thing can not be a strike,'” Hendrix claimed.
The umpire removed his face mask.
” Train, every little thing he tosses is a strike,” he informed Hendrix.
In all, Kershaw accumulated 9 strikeouts turning and 6 looking, on 70 lend a hand 5 innings.
” He tossed 3 pitches for a strike,” Hendrix claimed. “That makes it tough at the Big league degree. That makes it difficult at the senior high school degree.”
The Texans were maintaining the video game close when Kershaw entered the batter’s box in the 4th inning and introduced a homer over the centerfield wall surface.
” That primarily cold it,” Hendrix claimed.
Highland Park added 4 runs in all-time low of the 5th to finish the video game on a run policy.
Earlier, Tillotson had actually dealt with Kershaw in the leading fifty percent of the inning. Like the remainder of his colleagues, Tillotson started out in his initial at-bat, in the 2nd inning, however he ran the matter complete, a minimum of offering himself an opportunity to get to base.
He really did not obtain a lot of an opportunity in the 5th.
Tillotson turned and missed out on a high inside heater. He took the 2nd pitch, a curveball, for a sphere exterior. However Kershaw raised back and blew a heater past him for strike 2. After that the lefty returned to the curveball, and this moment it really did not miss out on.
Tillotson smacked at it and whiffed once again, virtually pinwheeling in a circle.
Seventeen years later on, Tillotson still made fun of the idea of looking “simply definitely wacky.”
” My grandmother’s brought it as much as me,” he claimed, “‘ Check out just how you dumb you look.'”
The loss finished Northwest’s period.
Tillotson bore in mind sensation that he and his colleagues would certainly obtain an additional split at Kershaw. Perhaps in university. Perhaps in the pros. They all had the exact same desires.
However it never ever exercised this way.
The following month, Kershaw was prepared by the Dodgers in the preliminary. And in lots of means, he’s ended up being the very best bottle of his generation, a lefty tale in the exact same breath as Sandy Koufax. He’s won 3 Cy Youngs and a Globe Collection. He’s won an MVP.
And he’s still entering into his mid-30s. This period, he was restricted by a shoulder injury, however he still tossed 131 innings with a 2.46 AGE. 5 years after he retires, he’ll be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
And the 2006 Northwest Texans, for far better or even worse, were a very early component of his tale, also if few individuals remembered them.
” There’s 2 various viewpoints to that,” claimed Hardy. “One, on the professional athlete side, you really value the sports capability of it. After that there’s the follower of baseball side. Reviewing it currently, it’s a cool tale to inform. I believe I value it much more currently, simply having time to review it … you never ever recognize just how much someone’s mosting likely to go.”
Said Tillotson, “Few individuals reach claim that, to see that first-hand. It’s mosting likely to be something I bear in mind for the remainder of my life.”
Last week, Tillotson obtained a consider an image of him striking versus Kershaw.
” Discouraged to the max lol,” he texted back.
After that he promptly sent out a follow-up: “That’s incredibly cool.”
