Inside The Padres

Padres All-Star Calls Clayton Kershaw 'The Best in The Game'

J.P. Hoornstra|
National League pitcher Clayton Kershaw (22) of the Los Angeles Dodgers leaves the game during the first inning during the 2025 MLB All Star Game at Truist Park on Tuesday.
National League pitcher Clayton Kershaw (22) of the Los Angeles Dodgers leaves the game during the first inning during the 2025 MLB All Star Game at Truist Park on Tuesday. | Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images

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San Diego Padres reliever Jason Adam is a bit older than your typical first-time All-Star. At 33, his relief appearance in Tuesday's All-Star Game in Atlanta marked the culmination of 952.1 innings pitched across six levels of professional baseball since 2011.

Less than two months after Adam's first start for the Class-A Kane County Cougars, Clayton Kershaw made his first appearance for the National League in MLB's Midsummer Classic.

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As evidence of just how far both pitchers have come since then: the 2011 All-Star Game was started by the late Hall of Famer Roy Halladay while the game's MVP, Prince Fielder, now has a 20-year-old son playing in the Brewers' minor league system.

Tuesday marked a full-circle moment for Adam. He was the pitcher chosen by National League manager Dave Roberts to relieve Kershaw in the second inning of the All-Star Game at Truist Park.

Speaking to reporters in Atlanta, Adam said Kershaw is “the best in the game.”

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“(To) come here and do this for the game of baseball and be here with us and lead us was really special,” Adam said of Kershaw's appearance as a "legacy pick" by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, via The Athletic.

Kershaw's accomplishments over 18 major league seasons in Los Angeles certainly back up Adam's superlatives. He has a .695 career winning percentage, the highest by any pitcher with more than 1,500 innings thrown since 1900. His 155 ERA+ is third in American or National League history, and behind only Jacob deGrom (156) among starters.

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Kershaw was selected to his 12th All-Star Game after going 4-1 with a 3.38 ERA in his first 10 starts of 2025 for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Adam wasn't the only Padre with high praise for the Dodgers' legend in Atlanta.

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“I think you’re talking about legends of the game,” All-Star third baseman Manny Machado said of Kershaw’s standing ovation, via The Athletic. “I think the game is above competition when you go out there.”

While Machado was Kershaw's teammate on the Dodgers briefly in 2018, before signing with the Padres as a free agent, Tuesday's All-Star Game marked the first time Adam and Kershaw were teammates.

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Adam was one of three Padres relief pitchers selected to the National League All-Star roster, a record. The right-hander is 6-3 with a 1.70 ERA in 47 appearances, with 52 strikeouts and a 1.259 WHIP in 47.2 innings pitched.

For more Padres news, head over to Padres on SI.

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J.P. Hoornstra
J.P. HOORNSTRA

J.P. Hoornstra is an On SI Contributor. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers in California, J.P. covered MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Angels (occasionally of Anaheim) from 2012-23 for the Southern California News Group. His first book, The 50 Greatest Dodgers Games of All-Time, published in 2015. In 2016, he won an Associated Press Sports Editors award for breaking news coverage. He once recorded a keyboard solo on the same album as two of the original Doors.

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