LOS ANGELES -- Dalton Rushing was 7 years old in 2008, and as he put it, "probably still playing with toys and trying to figure out exactly where my next 8U baseball tournament was."
In May of that year, a 20-year-old Clayton Kershaw took the mound at Dodger Stadium for his big league debut.
Flash forward to Saturday, when Rushing was behind the plate in just his second big league game to catch the first start of Kershaw's 18th season with the Dodgers. It was a memorable evening -- but both were left wanting more.
"It's a special thing to get to go back and pitch at Dodger Stadium," Kershaw said. "Obviously, I wanted to pitch better. I need to pitch better going forward."
Kershaw allowed five runs in four innings in an 11-9 Freeway Series loss to the Angels, taking the mound for the first time after completing his rehab from offseason surgeries on his left toe and left knee.
The veteran southpaw joined Zack Wheat and Bill Russell as the only players in franchise history to play 18 seasons for the Dodgers, an accomplishment that has taken on even more meaning for Kershaw in recent years.
Following a delayed beginning to the year due to left shoulder surgery, Kershaw's 2024 season lasted all of seven starts, coming to an early end after he injured his left big toe. He had to watch from the sidelines as the Dodgers took home the eighth World Series title in franchise history, which was a source of motivation as he worked his way back.
Not that he needs any additional hardware to go down as an all-time great. The three-time Cy Young Award winner and 2014 NL MVP -- who's 30 strikeouts shy of 3,000 for his career -- has nothing left to prove.
"I know how special he is. I know how good of a pitcher he is. No one has to tell him that; no one has to get confirmation for that," said Rushing, the Dodgers' top prospect and MLB Pipeline's No. 15 overall. "It's just tough. I want my pitchers, no matter who it is on the mound, to succeed more than anybody on the field. It hits me a little harder than anyone else."
Rather than dissect Kershaw's outing, Rushing put much of the onus for the night on himself.
"I'm a rookie. That's my job," Rushing said. "Essentially, I'm gonna take blame for every little thing that happens on the field, whether it's good, bad, ugly, everything. … It's going to be a long night looking at some things and figuring out what we can do to move forward and be better."
Kershaw allowed three runs to the Angels in a 38-pitch opening frame, which was prolonged by one at-bat due to a rundown gone awry. But the Dodgers wasted no time responding in the bottom of the first, with Andy Pages leaving the yard for the ninth time this season with a game-tying three-run blast off Halos starter Tyler Anderson.
That wiped the slate clean for Kershaw, who breezed through a 1-2-3 second before allowing another two runs. He surrendered a solo homer to Taylor Ward in the third, and Pages helped limit the damage in the fourth by making an impressive grab at the right-field wall, turning a deep drive from Zach Neto into a sacrifice fly.
There were flashes of vintage Kershaw in that clean second inning, but command issues were a common thread in the others.
"That’s the old Clayton," manager Dave Roberts said. "He’s a strike-thrower. He’s efficient and that typified his typical inning. … I thought he did a really good job of settling in, certainly after that first inning where the pitch count got up there really quickly."
In addition to his work behind the dish, Rushing was a key contributor at the plate, smacking a game-tying ground-rule double that was smoked at 112 mph off the bat in the sixth. One inning later, after the Angels put up a five-spot to stun the Dodgers, Rushing helped his team respond quickly with an RBI single.
When all was said and done, Rushing was hard on himself. But his venerable batterymate had a different view.
"Rush did great. Obviously, I didn't give him a lot to work with tonight," Kershaw said. "He's going to be good. He cares a lot, prepared a lot, did a lot of homework, and he's learning on the fly. I didn't give him a lot of help today."