Next Step of Clayton Kershaw's Historic Young Career Must Be Dominating October

Not only is Clayton Kershaw the clear front-runner for the National League Cy Young Award, which would be his third in four seasons, he also has an opportunity to double up by winning the NL MVP, too. Basically, Kershaw can do no wrong—in the regular season.

In the postseason? Well, that's been a little bit of a different story for the Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander.

That's not to say that Kershaw has been awful once the playoffs roll around, but the 26-year-old certainly has been less dominant, which can't help but stick out in an otherwise pristine seven-year career.

It's time. Kershaw needs that dramatic, shutdown October to put the final touches on his ascension. After all, he's already got the hardware and the 41-inning scoreless streak and the four consecutive ERA titles and the no-hitter—all of which cover April through September.

The good news is, with the Dodgers having clinched a postseason spot on the very day Kershaw became the majors' first 20-game winner, he'll get the chance to repair his October image. And that will come fresh off what has been his best campaign yet.

Speaking of fresh, much of this stigma stems from a year ago, when Kershaw put up a clunker at the worst possible time, surrendering seven runs on 10 hits and two walks over four innings in what proved to be the Dodgers postseason-ending loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 6 of the NLCS.

It's not hard to recall the shocking way in which the Cardinals battered Kershaw as if he weren't the best in the game but some journeyman forced to pitch because his team had no other options.

As Anthony DiComo of MLB.com wrote in the aftermath of that unfathomable result last Oct. 18:

"

Clayton Kershaw was supposed to send the Dodgers to Game 7. He was supposed to pitch as well as he has for the past 6 1/2 months, and that was supposed to be enough to force a deciding National League Championship Series game.

Instead, the presumptive NL Cy Young Award winner was barely recognizable in a season-ending 9-0 loss to the Cardinals on Friday, giving up seven runs over four-plus innings of one of his worst career starts.

'I just didn't pitch good,' Kershaw said. 'I don't have an answer. I just wasn't good enough.'

"

The disaster that was Game 6 represents the nadir of Kershaw's postseason problems, but there's actually more to the playoff failings of the best pitcher on the planet than merely that one ill-timed outcome.

How else does one explain Kershaw's 1-3 mark and less-than-good 4.23 ERA and 1.28 WHIP in his October outings so far?

Let's consider his three postseasons—2008, 2009 and 2013—individually. His first, when he was just a 20-year-old rookie back in '08, consisted merely of two relief appearances in the NLCS against the Philadelphia Phillies. That doesn't give us much to work with, especially since they weren't starting assignments.

A year later, Kershaw took two turns in the rotation, and while he was solid in giving up only two runs on nine hits in 6.2 frames in Game 2 of the NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals, he wasn't good in allowing five earned on four hits and a whopping five walks over 4.2 innings against the Phillies in Game 1 of the Championship Series. He followed that up with a two-runs-in-two-innings relief appearance in Game 5.

For those keeping score at home, Kershaw had pitched in five games to that point in his still-young postseason career, the Dodgers had lost four of them, and he'd yet to earn himself a "W."

That finally changed in Kershaw's first outing of the 2013 postseason, as he notched 12 strikeouts over seven innings of three-hit, one-run ball against the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of the NLDS.

That seemed to give Kershaw some October momentum. Even in what was a widely first-guessed decision by manager Don Mattingly to send Kershaw out on three days' rest for the first time in his career, he was again dominant in holding the Braves to two runs (both unearned) on three hits and a walk in six innings in Game 4.

Propelled by Kershaw, the Dodgers advanced to the ALCS against the Cardinals, and the opposition obviously proved a little tougher.

In his first start of that series in Game 2, Kershaw threw well, giving up just one run—again unearned—on two hits and a walk but was pulled by Mattingly after throwing just 72 pitches through six innings. Because Cardinals rookie Michael Wacha, in the middle of a historic October run, was even better, Kershaw was hit with the hard-luck 1-0 loss.

And that brings us back to that fateful, embarrassing NLCS Game 6, after which Kershaw's frustration and disappointment was plainly obvious as he discussed his most recent—and worst—postseason failure:

So will this October be any different for Kershaw?

The guess here is that between his historic regular-season performance and his ultra-competitive personality, Kershaw will be out to prove himself more than ever.

And the Dodgers need him to. The club's rotation, long a strength, has been dealing with, if not outright hampered by, injuries since midseason. Not long after right-hander Josh Beckett was lost for the year with hip and shoulder injuries, fellow righty Zack Greinke dealt with elbow soreness but battled through.

More recently, lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu has been out with left shoulder inflammation, and his status at the start of the playoffs remains up in the air, according to JP Hoornstra of the Los Angeles Daily News.

On top of all that, before stepping on the mound for the first time next month, Kershaw will face all kinds of reminders—from the media, from fans, from all corners—of how it all ended so poorly the last time he and the Dodgers made it this far.

There will be unwanted questions, there will be talking-head discussions, there will be hard-to-watch video snippets played over and over.

Heck, there might even be a column or two.

But don't think for a second that Kershaw hasn't been preparing for all that, rolling what-ifs and what-happens-nexts around in his head, yearning for the opportunity to make good on something that went so bad.

October has just about arrived. Now it's Kershaw's time to do the same in the postseason.

Statistics are accurate through Sept. 23 and are courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs, unless otherwise noted.

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