Is Clayton Kershaw the Peyton Manning of baseball?

Is Clayton Kershaw the Peyton Manning of baseball?

Another postseason for Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers has come and gone with a disappointing ending. With their season on the line, Los Angeles turned to their three-time Cy Young winner to force a Game 7 of the NLCS, and the Dodgers’ ace looked uncharacteristically mortal. After throwing seven scoreless innings in Game 2, the Cubs hit Kershaw hard and early in Game 6, leading to another forgettable performance.

Despite Kershaw’s playoff failures, he is still the most dominant pitcher in all of baseball. However, it begs the question, would you rather go to battle in the postseason with Kershaw or someone like Madison Bumgarner? Kershaw may have the three Cy Young awards, but it’s Bumgarner who has the three World Series titles.

Following the latest dud the playoff statistics speak for themselves.

To gain some perspective, Kershaw owns a microscopic 2.37 ERA and 1.007 WHIP over 263 starts during his regular season career. Bumgarner, on the other hand, has a 2.99 ERA with a 1.097 WHIP over 214 starts.

It’s sometimes rare to draw comparisons between different sports, but the Kershaw-Bumgarner question feels a lot like the Peyton Manning-Tom Brady debate. Both pitchers dominate the regular season, but once the playoffs commence, one thrives, whereas the other falters. The same was the case for the two quarterbacks.

For all the regular season accomplishments, Manning’s postseason record was a mediocre 14–13, but one must remember his three wins from last year’s campaign had more to do with the Broncos’ vaunted defense than their future Hall of Fame quarterback’s arm. Manning averaged 2.14 touchdowns per interception during his regular season career, but that ratio dipped to 1.6 during those 27 playoff contests. Brady, on the other hand, has won more than seventy percent of his postseason games (22–9) and maintained an even 2-to-1 touchdown/interception ratio over that span.

Unlike the Brady-Manning rivalry, Kershaw and Bumgarner have never met in the postseason. The two foes are quite familiar with one another pitching in both the NL West and in one of baseball’s oldest rivalries. Brady’s four rings are twice as many as Manning’s count, and even before Manning tacked on his second one last year, it had become evident as time passed on which quarterback you’d rather have on the biggest stage.

This is not to dismiss any of Kershaw’s successes thus far in his career and one must keep in mind that he is only 28 years old. He’s certainly young enough to flip the narrative that has played out during his nine-year career and assuming the Dodgers continue to be a regular fixture in the NL postseason, he should have more opportunities to improve upon that 28.93 ERA after the sixth inning of playoff games.

To be compared to Peyton Manning already means that Kershaw is amongst the greatest of all time, but if Kershaw aspires to be the best of this era, then he will need to exorcise those playoff demons that continue to haunt him each October.