How SF Giants greats, and forgotten Giants, fared against Kershaw over the years

Clayton Kershaw announced he will retire after this season, making Friday's game against the SF Giants his final regular season start in Chavez Ravine which is fitting. No pulled punches on either side. Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly from Kershaw's career versus the SF Giants.

Digging into Kershaw's career against the SF Giants

What better place to start than the beginning?

Kershaw made his first start against the Giants on April 15, 2009, and it really set the tone for the rest of time. He went seven innings of one hit ball, and recorded 13 strikeouts.

Kershaw is 27-16 in 62 appearances against the SF Giants, and boasts a 2.08 ERA in the series.

Kershaw is now so old that he faced guys like Rich Aurillia, Juan Uribe and Pat Burrell just to name a few.

One of the top match-ups to watch in the 2010's was Madison Bumgarner vs Kershaw. Fueled by a respect for the rivalry that could also get intense, these games often felt more like fights. They faced each other seven times. With Mad-Bum taking the best of the series going 4-2 with a 2.58 ERA.

Kershaw went 2-4 with a 2.12 ERA when facing Bumgarner. Bumgarner certainly got the best of Kershaw at the plate though as he is the Giant with the second-most home runs off Kershaw all time with two.

It was incredibly fitting that Bumgarner's final at-bat as a Giant came against Kershaw.

Kershaw would post a sub 2.50 ERA through his first six starts versus the Giants until May 18, 2011. Kershaw would only finish five innings allowing four runs on seven hits, but still struck out six. Matt Cain went 7 and 1/3 innings in this fame striking out seven, and allowing three runs on three hits. Cody Ross also homered off of Kershaw in this game which is a rare time the Giants got the best of the lefty.

Kershaw dominated over a lot of great Giants like Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt, who particularly struggled against Kershaw with a .065 batting average in 67 plate appearances. Kershaw's ownage over Belt fundamentally altered some of the first baseman's career stats.

As for Buster Posey, he did not fare too badly against the future Hall of Famer as he had a .221 career batting average against Kershaw with three homers and 10 runs batted in.

Strangely enough, it was often the under-the-radar guys who would get the best of Kershaw during his time against the Giants. For instance, Nate Schierholtz had a .929 OPS in seven plate apperances against Kershaw. Small sample size but ownage is ownage.

Joaquin Arias was 12-40 in his career against Kershaw. Then there is Austin Slater who has four home runs and a 1.123 OPS in 31 plate appearances against "The Claw."

Obviously, Kershaw got the best of the Giants in his career but maybe the Giants can send him into retirement by flipping the script like they did last Saturday by getting to him for four runs in three innings. The least they can do is bring "Playoff Kershaw" out of hibernation for the Dodgers right before October.

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