And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talking Happy fourth of July and what says fourth of July more than a man that has spent eighteen fourth of July's with the Dodgers. That's mister three thousand to himself, Clayton Kershaw. With this dad bucket hat the players will be wearing today, thanks a lot for the time. Happy fourth.
It is kind of like a dad bucket hat.
Huh, yeah, this is very you.
Why just because I'm a dad.
Yeah, you wear these type of things with the rope on it too.
I don't know about the rope thing, but it is definitely a dad hat. So I'll rock it. I'll rock it.
I did like the Rams hat you were sporting after the start in Denver.
Yeah, I'm a Rams guy now.
So ever since Matthew got there, you know, they won a Super Bowl, so it looks like bandwagon. But yeah, ever since Matthew got there, I'm a Ram fan.
I've never heard the connection between you and Stafford before.
Oh you want that story?
Hey? Two days later. Now you've been celebrated so much around baseball in LA. How does it feel after you've been able to get through all that.
Oh, it's so special.
I mean, I think that night, you know, obviously I'd like to have given up a few less runs and
strike out the guy a little sooner. But you know, looking back on the whole night and everything that happened, it was so special, such a great night for my family, for me, and you know, obviously the fans reaction that whole night and just how they you know, you kind of just felt the tension that they had for me to figure this thing out and to get a strikeout finally, So just wouldn't have changed it for the world, just to blast so grateful for the night, And you know,
I think it's slowly starting to move on, get past it and try to look forward to facing the Brewers and get that three thousand and first one.
You don't really show any sort of self importance. Were you surprised by how much the fans cared about you reaching that milestone? Yeah?
I think so.
I mean, I think, you know, from even just the warm ups before the game to you know, running back out for the sixth inning, there it was. It was definitely more than I I was. It was a very unique experience.
It was awesome, awesome, I was doing Dodger talk upstairs while you came out after the game and the grounds crew started to dig up the pitching rubber. Was that on your request or did they do that as a gift to you?
No, I didn't know they were doing that, so yeah, really nice of Jordan and all the guys to dig that up for me, and thanks heavy man. It's no small feat to get that thing out. It took them five hours the next day to put the next one down, So labor of love for sure, but thankful to have it.
That's pretty awesome.
What do you do with the pitching rubber? Where were you put that in the trophy case?
Great question. I'm not sure yet. I don't know, but it's a great story, so I'll keep it somewhere. Yeah.
Clayton Kershaw is our guest on fourth of July. You know, Clayton, when you look at this team, you guys have the best record again by two games over the Tigers. Do you feel like there's a lot more room to go as far as playing your best baseball?
You know, I think it's probably twofold. I think we are playing good baseball right now, I really do. You know, we're winning games we're supposed to. We're getting great comebacks playing like clean baseball. You know, starters are getting some length into the games and so it kind of sets up the bullpen to do their role as well, and guys are getting big hits. But to your point, I mean, I think when we get some more guys back, you know, obviously months going down for you know, the six weeks
or whatever is a tough blow. But you know, when when Snell's back, when glasses back, when trying's back, and get that pitching staff to one hundred percent or close to it, it's, uh, we should be able to keep winning games. And that's uh, that's an exciting thing to think about.
The bullpen has already pitched those innings. Is there any way to compensate in the second half for the load they have shouldered the first half?
Yes?
And no.
I mean I think, you know, I think with the opener situation, the bullpen innings get skewed a little bit, right because the bullpen, you know, the bulk guys are getting five or six six innings.
That looks like it's the bullpen innings.
But you know, the guys that have been healthy for the whole year, like Tanner, some of these guys, Jack and Benny, some of the guys that have had big workloads. I think, I think there's ways to manage it. And but no, I mean, at the end of the day, they're gonna throw in big situations because those are our guys. It's just a matter of, you know, getting a little more consistency in the starting rotation. And I think you're
starting to see that too. I think guys are going, you know, six seven innings recently, which has been nice, and that's the biggest way to reset the pen. It's just for the guys to get a little bit deeper in the games.
How much do we take for granted this offense best in baseball, but it still feels like there might be a little bit more, which is kind of scary.
Yeah, best, I think you said it the right way. I think there's a there's room for let me say this way. Our offense is doing well and everybody swung the bat well at times, but I don't know if everybody swung the bat well at the same time. So once that happens, that's a scary thing, and that's hard to do throughout the rhythms of a season. To have everybody swinging the bats well at the same time, but you know, once once everybody gets going, which you know that it will.
It's it's a scary thing to think about.
You've taken a lot of pride out of being consistent in your career. How much do we take for granted how consistent Freddie Freeman has been for the Dodgers, not only this year, but in his career. Does he get lost in the shuffle because he's so consistent?
Yeah? Maybe so.
I mean I think you know, at the beginning of the season, you know, you pencil Freddy in at first base every day and say, oh, he's going to hit three hundred, his ops is going to be nine hundred, He's going to do all this play every day, and you just kind of pencil that in and expect it, like you don't realize that that elite level of play
is not easy to do every day. So yeah, I mean, I think I think you expected out of Freddy, And that's why the expectations make it seem that like, hey, this is just kind of home home what he does. But for him to continue to do it at the level that he is is it's an elite thing. It's a special thing that very few people can do in the game, and so it's nice to have for sure.
Since he was counting down to three that for you, can I be your sirraho here to help you count down as far as doubles go, because he's climbed a lot of Hall of Famers this year, and he's just four away from passing Lou Garrick for the forty second most doubles in baseball history. Should I feed you the double stats as we go through the season.
And if we start playing that game with hits and doubles with Freddie, we might be doing that every day with something. So it's just a testament to him. But that's a big name, Lou Garriy, that's special.
Clayton Kershaw is our guest. Before I let you go, I wanted to ask you were you surprised by any text you got from one person congratulating you.
Uh, so many people reached out, which I was so thankful for, you know, obviously getting the guys from the current three thousand club, you know, Sures and JV both reached out to Sea congrats, which I thought was super cool. You know, obviously we've kind of I wouldn't say grow up together, but we've been in the big leagues kind of the same times, and so you know, us three. I finally get to join their club with three thousand strikeouts.
Was awesome.
So those guys a lot of friends and family, but it was everybody that reached out. It was just it was really cool to see everybody so happy for me. I was very thankful for all of it.
Do you remember how how big the number was on the phone of text after the game.
I don't know, it sounds I don't know, it sounds weird, but there was a lot it was.
It was over five hundred, no, no, over three thousand.
No, no, no, no, but it was awesome. Awesome.
Hey, Clayton, it's been a pleasure to be with you for fourteen fourth of July's and just see how much work you put in. I feel like that's the reason why everybody was so happy for you, because you respect the game. You put in so much work, and you treat everybody really well. So you even treat slubs like me pretty well on the radio. So thank you.
Well, you forced me to do this one today, so I had no choice.
Well, you know, it just happened to have this one hundred and fifty dollars gift card at Travis Matthew Clayton Kershaw. Visit Travis matthew dot com and received twenty percent off your first order when you sign up for emails. We'll do that later. I'll sign you up, all right, Happy for Dave