Somehow, I think, not getting swept in the finale in Baltimore really didn’t help as much as it ought to have. Dodger fans are still panicky, for (mostly) good reasons, and I don’t know that having won or lost that game really would have made things any worse. Injuries are piling up, Matt Kemp is struggling, the left side of the infield is atrocious… there’s a lot not to like.

Yet while all of those concerns are valid, let’s not let the current dark clouds hang over the giant, brightly-lit silver lining that’s starting in New York tonight: Clayton Kershaw.

In my latest for ESPN Insider, I make the point that Kershaw isn’t just one of the best pitchers in baseball, his career path rivals that of the greatest to ever play the game:

Yet to merely place him among the ranks one of the greatest pitching talents in the game today is almost an injustice, because the same could be said about David Price, Stephen Strasburg, Justin Verlander or a half-dozen other members of the true pitching elite. With every start, Kershaw is continuing to lay the groundwork for a career that is already on the path to baseball immortality.

It’s not groundbreaking to say that he’s great, but there’s few pitchers in the history of the sport to have accomplished what he has by his still-young age of 25. While it’s not unfair to wring our hands a bit over the real struggles this team faces, let’s not completely take for granted the achievements of one of the true stars in baseball.

You may now return to your regularly-scheduled arguments over whether Scott Van Slyke is awesome. (Spoiler alert: he is not.)

Apparently, all you really need in this life is Clayton Kershaw, who added seven more scoreless innings to his ledger tonight against the Pirates. Kershaw’s now pitched 16 shutout innings this season, striking out 16 against just one walk — and even that one walk, which came tonight against old friend Russell Martin, was immediately rectified by a successful pickoff. Going back to last season, Kershaw’s allowed a lone earned run in his last 35 innings.

It’s really beyond my capacity in writing this blog to explain quite the level of greatness we’re witnessing here. Kershaw is operating on a plane that we haven’t seen in decades, if ever, and it happens so regularly that we basically take it for granted. “Oh, Kershaw’s pitching tonight? He’ll be great.” Well, yes. He will. But that’s not to be taken lightly. We’re lucky enough to be witnesses to the early years of what looks — fingers crossed — to be a career on a historic path.

Of course, all of the quality pitching is merely serving to obscure some atrocious offense, particularly on the left side of the infield. I think we all knew to lower our expectations when Hanley Ramirez got hurt, but I’m not sure if any of us expected this. So far this year, Dodger left-side infielders (mainly Luis Cruz & Justin Sellers, with cameos by Nick Punto & Juan Uribe) have a lone hit (by Punto) and two walks in 38 plate appearances. You think that’s bad? It gets worse: one of the two walks was intentional.

Here’s a perfect microcosm of the problem. In the eighth inning, with Kershaw out and the margin as slim as it could be, Adrian Gonzalez led off with a double. After an Andre Ethier flyout, A.J. Ellis walked, because of course he did. Cruz struck out and looked bad doing it, Sellers did the same, and the runners were stranded.

Other than the intentional walk to Cruz a few days ago, neither of the primary left side starters has reached base even once yet this season. There’s no amount of good defense that’s going to overcome that. That’s not to absolve Matt Kemp, who struck out three times in four hitless at-bats, of course. But at least Kemp has a long history of quality play to fall back on. Cruz & Sellers do not.

Hyun-jin Ryu takes the mound for his second start as the Dodgers go for the sweep tomorrow against Jeff Locke, in a 1:10pm start.