One night after Clayton Kershaw's season was declared over by the Dodgers, as he was scratched from his start today after the Rockies were eliminated last night, it turns out he will pitch again after all. Kershaw will start Friday night at home to start the final series of the season.
Kershaw, who already has reached career highs in starts and innings pitched this season, also has 497 strikeouts in his career. Per Dillon Tung of STATS LLC, Kershaw is poised to become the sixth-youngest pitcher in MLB history with 500 strikeouts, joining Dwight Gooden, Bert Blyleven, Gary Nolan, Felix Hernandez, and Catfish Hunter.
As a result of the change, Chad Billingsley will start Saturday and Ted Lilly will start Sunday. Hiroki Kuroda, who was slated to start Sunday and is 3 2/3 innings short of 200 for the season, will not pitch, per the Dodgers:
#Torre wanted to see if 200 innings was an important goal for Kuroda and Hiroki said it wasn't, hence the change in rotation.
Kuroda is 11-13 with a 3.39 ERA in 196 1/3 innings this season.