Kershaw reflects on WS loss: 'Maybe one of these days I won’t fail'

Clayton Kershaw is arguably the greatest pitcher on the planet, but after losing Game 7 of the World Series to the Houston Astros on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Dodgers ace feels like a failure.

"Maybe one of these days I won’t fail, we won’t fail, and we’ll win one of these things," Kershaw explained to reporters, including Josh Peter of USA Today. "… 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 Dodgers won more regular-season games than any other team while securing a fifth consecutive division title, but they couldn't walk out of the big dance hoisting The Commissioner's Trophy. The loss was an obvious disappointment to Kershaw who pitched four spotless innings of relief after starter Yu Darvish struggled.

"It's too hard to think about what the Astros are getting to do right now," Kershaw told J.P Hoornstra of the Orange County Register postgame. "It's too hard to think about all that."

With the season officially over, the 29-year-old Kershaw - signed through 2021 - plans to hang out with teammates and remember the remarkable season they had and hopes to make it happen once again soon.

"This month felt like 27 years," he explained. "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."