Clayton Kershaw After World Series Loss: 'Maybe One of These Days I Won't Fail'

Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw said "nobody cares about or remembers" who finished in second place after the team's 5-1 loss to the Houston Astros in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series on Wednesday night. 

Josh Peter of USA Today passed along reaction from the three-time National League Cy Young Award winner, who finished the playoffs with a 3.82 ERA and 0.94 WHIP in six appearances.

"Maybe one of these days I won't fail, we won't fail and we'll win one of these things," Kershaw said. "There's only one team that can succeed. There's only one team that wins the last game, so that's tough. I think once the dust settles and we go home, we can realize that we had a pretty amazing season and we finished in second place, which nobody cares about or remembers."

The 29-year-old starting pitcher delivered four innings of scoreless relief in the decisive game of a memorable Fall Classic, but it was too little too late. The five runs Houston scored while starter Yu Darvish was in the game were enough to push the organization to its first championship.

Meanwhile, Kershaw said the Dodgers' postseason run was a draining experience and those feelings were amplified by coming up just short of the ultimate goal, according to Peter.

"This month felt like 27 years," he said. "You can ask my wife too. I think it took 10 years off her life. It's just every game, every pitch, it's just so intense. It's hard. You go through this much effort to win that many games against this many good teams and it's, I mean, I hope to get to this point again."

He added: "Right now we're just trying to kind of, without being too emotional, just kind of embracing each other a little bit. Just understanding we're all feeling the same hurt."

L.A. won the first four games Kershaw started in the playoffs, but it lost his Game 5 World Series start, which saw him allow six earned runs over 4.2 innings in a 13-12 extra-innings defeat.

That said, his presence is one of the major reasons the Dodgers are set up for long-term success. He's the most dominant starting pitcher in baseball as he illustrated once again during the regular season with an NL-best 2.31 ERA and 202 strikeouts in 175 innings.

The only thing missing on an otherwise outstanding career resume, which includes an MVP and seven All-Star Game selections in addition to the Cy Young Awards, is a World Series title.