Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw Describes the Delicate Balance of LA's September Goals

The Dodgers essentially have the National League West wrapped up and will likely take care of that mathematical formality in the next week. Their grasp on the best record in the NL is firm, and best record in MLB is extremely likely, too.

With 26 games left in the regular season, the Dodgers are playing for both nothing and everything. No individual game over the next four weeks will really matter, but every game matters as L.A. tries to prepare for what they hope will be a long and successful playoff run.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is trying to balance playing time for struggling former stars like Cody Bellinger and Chris Taylor, surprising stars like Trayce Thompson, and guys who are trying to prove they can contribute in October like rookie Miguel Vargas. And then there's Joey Gallo, who could have slotted into any of those three categories above.

Roberts and the Los Angeles front office have their work cut out for them in figuring out the postseason plan, even before we bring up that they will likely have 16-18 pitchers thinking they deserve one of the 13 spots on the playoff roster.

From the players' side, though, things aren't quite as complicated. The Dodgers still have games on the schedule, and the players in those games are going to try to win them.

Clayton Kershaw put the Dodgers' Sept. succinctly: "We're trying to get ready for the postseason, but also try to win the game. Sometimes those mirror each other and other times they don't, so it's a little bit more challenging at times...for me personally it's just win the game"
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) September 8, 2022

The "challenging" part applies more to the management side: whom to deploy and when. But for Kershaw and the other players, the job is no different in a meaningless September than it will be when the games start mattering again a month from now. See ball, hit ball, throw ball, execute pitches, etc.

The players need to be a little more flexible, perhaps, which Kershaw demonstrated by willingly departing a one-run game after six innings and 86 pitches on Wednesday. But the goal remains the same: when it's your turn, try to win the game.

The approach has worked remarkably well all season, and there's no reason to think it won't keep working, in the last 26 games of the season and beyond.