Clayton Kershaw walked right through a benches-clearing incident to go throw his warm-up pitches
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Wednesday afternoon's NL West finale between the Dodgers and Giants at AT&T Park was won by Los Angeles, 6-1, but it wasn't without its share of drama.
In the top of the third inning, the benches emptied after a disagreement between Giants starter Johnny Cueto and Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal. Cueto accused Grandal of relaying pitch signs from second base, which led to the scene in the clip atop this post after the third out was recorded.
With members of both teams rushing out onto the field and gathering for a benches-clearing "moment" after the inning ended (nothing new for the two rivals, really), it presented a bit of a quandary for Clayton Kershaw. Wait it out, be patient and allow cooler heads to prevail before taking the mound was one option. This was another:
Just jog straight through the middle of the skirmish, ever-focused on getting back to the mound and resuming your pitching duties.
After the game, Kershaw summed up the situation as follows to MLB.com's Ken Gurnick:
"Just a lot of talk, so I was just going to keep on playing, if it's the same to everyone else."
Needless to say his commitment to the task at hand worked: He threw seven innings of three-hit, shutout baseball en route to the victory.