Tough opponents?

In a week, the 2026 regular season will start. Well, things have become a little bit different because Clayton Kershaw is not on the Dodgers roster. For me, it’s been a bit weird that we won’t see Kershaw in the Dodgers uniform this year. A couple of days ago, I was watching some videos on YouTube. A video was the highlights of Clayton Kershaw’s performance in 2025.

 

After watching the highlights of Kershaw, I was just wondering one thing. Of course, Kershaw is a future Hall of Famer. Without a doubt, he’s one the best pitchers this generation. However, are there any teams that he actually didn’t pitch so well? To solve my doubts, I decided to check on the great baseball reference website.

 

Well, Clayton Kershaw only faced the Boston Red Sox one time in the regular season in his career. It was last summer. Kershaw tossed 4.2 innings against the Red Sox, giving up 6 hits and 4 runs (all earned). He struck out 2 batters. Kershaw took a loss. So, in his career, he owned a 7.71 ERA against the Red Sox and that’s the only team that Kershaw has an ERA over 4. And the Red Sox batters hit .333 against Kershaw.

 

Moreover, there’s the other team that hit over .300 against Kershaw. That team is the Toronto Blue Jays. In his career, Kershaw used to make 3 starts against the Blue Jays and had a .309 BAA. In those 3 starts, Kershaw threw 19 innings, allowing 21 hits and 6 runs (all earned). Nonetheless, he struck out 20 batters and he actually won all 3 games. The last time that Kershaw faced the Blue Jays in the regular season was in 2025. He tossed 6 innings, giving up 7 hits and 1 earned run.

 

At the same time, there are 2 teams, which hit .250 or higher against Kershaw. He had a .276 BAA against the White Sox. In his career, Kershaw made 6 starts and threw 37 innings. He owned a 3.41 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP. Last year, Kershaw made 1 start against the White Sox, giving up 4 runs (all earned) over 6 innings. The Cleveland Guardians hit .250 against Kershaw. He made 5 starts against the Guardians in his career, giving up 9 runs (all earned) over 24 innings. But he never took a loss against the Guardians. Kershaw made a start against the Guardians last year. He threw 5 innings and allowed 1 run.

 

Looking back at Kershaw’s career, there’s no doubt that he’s just outstanding. He only posted an ERA over 4 against the Red Sox. Well, he only faced the Red Sox one time during the regular season. Additionally, only 2 teams hit over .300 against him. It’s still quite strange not seeing Kershaw pitch in the spring training games and I might still miss him during the regular season. Nonetheless, it’s baseball. You see changes in roster, you see players become stars and players will say goodbye to baseball.