Dodgers' questionable use of Clayton Kershaw in Game 3 dud keeps Phillies alive

This can't be how it ends for Clayton Kershaw. Not like this.

The future Hall of Famer, who has already announced that he will be retiring after this season, pitched a pair of innings in the Los Angeles Dodgers' loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 3 of the NLDS on Wednesday – and the Dodgers must now do whatever they can to ensure that they won't be the last two innings he pitches in his Major League career.

The Dodgers could have sent the Phillies packing and advanced to the NLCS with a win on Wednesday. Instead, they fell behind early with ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound and allowed Philadelphia to break the game wide open with a monster eighth inning. Philly avoided the sweep and will have their ace, Christopher Sanchez, on the mound for Game 4 on Thursday.

After escaping the seventh inning without allowing a run to score, Kershaw didn't fare so well in the eighth. After giving up a leadoff homer to J.T. Realmuto and walking Max Kepler before recording his first out of the inning, Kershaw surrendered a two-run single to Trea Turner that extended the Phillies' lead to 5-1. Then, of course, came Kyle Schwarber's second homer of the night, which scored Turner and widened the gap to 8-1.

By the end of his night, Kershaw had given up five runs (four earned) on six hits with three walks through two innings for a ghastly 18.00 ERA. And while one rough night doesn't put a blemish on his legendary career, the Dodgers putting him in at that point was bizarre. Why didn't he directly follow Yamamoto after the right-hander was removed after four innings? Kershaw would have been in a better position to piggyback the middle innings and avoid the utmost high leverage. The guy hasn't pitched since Sept. 28 and the move was to throw him out there for the seventh and eighth innings of a game the Dodgers trailed by just two runs?

Maybe they were entrusting him to keep the game within reach, but considering he hasn't been put in such a position since 2019 — when the move also backfired against the Washington Nationals — it's hard to call that a logical idea.

The Dodgers must pull out all the stops on Thursday night to avoid this series going back to Philadelphia. It's far from the end of the world, but misusing Kershaw, who was supposed to be a valuable bullpen piece, could be a misstep that leads to a snowball effect, especially with the inconsistent Tyler Glasnow taking the ball in Game 4.