Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger
Speaker 1: Talking Happy fourth of July and what says fourth of
Speaker 1: July more than a man that has spent eighteen fourth
Speaker 1: of July's with the Dodgers. That's mister three thousand to himself,
Speaker 1: Clayton Kershaw. With this dad bucket hat the players will
Speaker 1: be wearing today, thanks a lot for the time. Happy fourth.
Speaker 2: It is kind of like a dad bucket hat.
Speaker 1: Huh, yeah, this is very you.
Speaker 2: Why just because I'm a dad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you wear these type of things with the rope
Speaker 1: on it too.
Speaker 2: I don't know about the rope thing, but it is
Speaker 2: definitely a dad hat. So I'll rock it. I'll rock it.
Speaker 1: I did like the Rams hat you were sporting after
Speaker 1: the start in Denver.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a Rams guy now.
Speaker 3: So ever since Matthew got there, you know, they won
Speaker 3: a Super Bowl, so it looks like bandwagon. But yeah,
Speaker 3: ever since Matthew got there, I'm a Ram fan.
Speaker 1: I've never heard the connection between you and Stafford before.
Speaker 2: Oh you want that story?
Speaker 1: Hey? Two days later. Now you've been celebrated so much
Speaker 1: around baseball in LA. How does it feel after you've
Speaker 1: been able to get through all that.
Speaker 2: Oh, it's so special.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that night, you know, obviously I'd
Speaker 3: like to have given up a few less runs and
Speaker 3: strike out the guy a little sooner. But you know,
Speaker 3: looking back on the whole night and everything that happened,
Speaker 3: it was so special, such a great night for my family,
Speaker 3: for me, and you know, obviously the fans reaction that
Speaker 3: whole night and just how they you know, you kind
Speaker 3: of just felt the tension that they had for me
Speaker 3: to figure this thing out and to get a strikeout finally,
Speaker 3: So just wouldn't have changed it for the world, just
Speaker 3: to blast so grateful for the night, And you know,
Speaker 3: I think it's slowly starting to move on, get past
Speaker 3: it and try to look forward to facing the Brewers
Speaker 3: and get that three thousand and first one.
Speaker 1: You don't really show any sort of self importance. Were
Speaker 1: you surprised by how much the fans cared about you
Speaker 1: reaching that milestone? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I think so.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think, you know, from even just the
Speaker 3: warm ups before the game to you know, running back
Speaker 3: out for the sixth inning, there it was. It was
Speaker 3: definitely more than I I was. It was a very
Speaker 3: unique experience.
Speaker 1: It was awesome, awesome, I was doing Dodger talk upstairs
Speaker 1: while you came out after the game and the grounds
Speaker 1: crew started to dig up the pitching rubber. Was that
Speaker 1: on your request or did they do that as a
Speaker 1: gift to you?
Speaker 3: No, I didn't know they were doing that, so yeah,
Speaker 3: really nice of Jordan and all the guys to dig
Speaker 3: that up for me, and thanks heavy man. It's no
Speaker 3: small feat to get that thing out. It took them
Speaker 3: five hours the next day to put the next one down,
Speaker 3: So labor of love for sure, but thankful to have it.
Speaker 2: That's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: What do you do with the pitching rubber? Where were
Speaker 1: you put that in the trophy case?
Speaker 2: Great question. I'm not sure yet. I don't know, but
Speaker 2: it's a great story, so I'll keep it somewhere. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Clayton Kershaw is our guest on fourth of July. You know, Clayton,
Speaker 1: when you look at this team, you guys have the
Speaker 1: best record again by two games over the Tigers. Do
Speaker 1: you feel like there's a lot more room to go
Speaker 1: as far as playing your best baseball?
Speaker 3: You know, I think it's probably twofold. I think we
Speaker 3: are playing good baseball right now, I really do. You know,
Speaker 3: we're winning games we're supposed to. We're getting great comebacks
Speaker 3: playing like clean baseball. You know, starters are getting some
Speaker 3: length into the games and so it kind of sets
Speaker 3: up the bullpen to do their role as well, and
Speaker 3: guys are getting big hits. But to your point, I mean,
Speaker 3: I think when we get some more guys back, you know,
Speaker 3: obviously months going down for you know, the six weeks
Speaker 3: or whatever is a tough blow. But you know, when
Speaker 3: when Snell's back, when glasses back, when trying's back, and
Speaker 3: get that pitching staff to one hundred percent or close
Speaker 3: to it, it's, uh, we should be able to keep
Speaker 3: winning games. And that's uh, that's an exciting thing to
Speaker 3: think about.
Speaker 1: The bullpen has already pitched those innings. Is there any
Speaker 1: way to compensate in the second half for the load
Speaker 1: they have shouldered the first half?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: And no.
Speaker 3: I mean I think, you know, I think with the
Speaker 3: opener situation, the bullpen innings get skewed a little bit,
Speaker 3: right because the bullpen, you know, the bulk guys are
Speaker 3: getting five or six six innings.
Speaker 2: That looks like it's the bullpen innings.
Speaker 3: But you know, the guys that have been healthy for
Speaker 3: the whole year, like Tanner, some of these guys, Jack
Speaker 3: and Benny, some of the guys that have had big workloads.
Speaker 3: I think, I think there's ways to manage it. And
Speaker 3: but no, I mean, at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: they're gonna throw in big situations because those are our guys.
Speaker 3: It's just a matter of, you know, getting a little
Speaker 3: more consistency in the starting rotation. And I think you're
Speaker 3: starting to see that too. I think guys are going,
Speaker 3: you know, six seven innings recently, which has been nice,
Speaker 3: and that's the biggest way to reset the pen. It's
Speaker 3: just for the guys to get a little bit deeper
Speaker 3: in the games.
Speaker 1: How much do we take for granted this offense best
Speaker 1: in baseball, but it still feels like there might be
Speaker 1: a little bit more, which is kind of scary.
Speaker 3: Yeah, best, I think you said it the right way.
Speaker 3: I think there's a there's room for let me say
Speaker 3: this way. Our offense is doing well and everybody swung
Speaker 3: the bat well at times, but I don't know if
Speaker 3: everybody swung the bat well at the same time. So
Speaker 3: once that happens, that's a scary thing, and that's hard
Speaker 3: to do throughout the rhythms of a season. To have
Speaker 3: everybody swinging the bats well at the same time, but
Speaker 3: you know, once once everybody gets going, which you know
Speaker 3: that it will.
Speaker 2: It's it's a scary thing to think about.
Speaker 1: You've taken a lot of pride out of being consistent
Speaker 1: in your career. How much do we take for granted
Speaker 1: how consistent Freddie Freeman has been for the Dodgers, not
Speaker 1: only this year, but in his career. Does he get
Speaker 1: lost in the shuffle because he's so consistent?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Maybe so.
Speaker 3: I mean I think you know, at the beginning of
Speaker 3: the season, you know, you pencil Freddy in at first
Speaker 3: base every day and say, oh, he's going to hit
Speaker 3: three hundred, his ops is going to be nine hundred,
Speaker 3: He's going to do all this play every day, and
Speaker 3: you just kind of pencil that in and expect it,
Speaker 3: like you don't realize that that elite level of play
Speaker 3: is not easy to do every day. So yeah, I mean,
Speaker 3: I think I think you expected out of Freddy, And
Speaker 3: that's why the expectations make it seem that like, hey,
Speaker 3: this is just kind of home home what he does.
Speaker 3: But for him to continue to do it at the
Speaker 3: level that he is is it's an elite thing. It's
Speaker 3: a special thing that very few people can do in
Speaker 3: the game, and so it's nice to have for sure.
Speaker 1: Since he was counting down to three that for you,
Speaker 1: can I be your sirraho here to help you count
Speaker 1: down as far as doubles go, because he's climbed a
Speaker 1: lot of Hall of Famers this year, and he's just
Speaker 1: four away from passing Lou Garrick for the forty second
Speaker 1: most doubles in baseball history. Should I feed you the
Speaker 1: double stats as we go through the season.
Speaker 3: And if we start playing that game with hits and
Speaker 3: doubles with Freddie, we might be doing that every day
Speaker 3: with something. So it's just a testament to him. But
Speaker 3: that's a big name, Lou Garriy, that's special.
Speaker 1: Clayton Kershaw is our guest. Before I let you go,
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you were you surprised by any
Speaker 1: text you got from one person congratulating you.
Speaker 3: Uh, so many people reached out, which I was so
Speaker 3: thankful for, you know, obviously getting the guys from the
Speaker 3: current three thousand club, you know, Sures and JV both
Speaker 3: reached out to Sea congrats, which I thought was super cool.
Speaker 3: You know, obviously we've kind of I wouldn't say grow
Speaker 3: up together, but we've been in the big leagues kind
Speaker 3: of the same times, and so you know, us three.
Speaker 3: I finally get to join their club with three thousand strikeouts.
Speaker 2: Was awesome.
Speaker 3: So those guys a lot of friends and family, but
Speaker 3: it was everybody that reached out. It was just it
Speaker 3: was really cool to see everybody so happy for me.
Speaker 3: I was very thankful for all of it.
Speaker 1: Do you remember how how big the number was on
Speaker 1: the phone of text after the game.
Speaker 3: I don't know, it sounds I don't know, it sounds weird,
Speaker 3: but there was a lot it was.
Speaker 1: It was over five hundred, no, no, over three thousand.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, but it was awesome. Awesome.
Speaker 1: Hey, Clayton, it's been a pleasure to be with you
Speaker 1: for fourteen fourth of July's and just see how much
Speaker 1: work you put in. I feel like that's the reason
Speaker 1: why everybody was so happy for you, because you respect
Speaker 1: the game. You put in so much work, and you
Speaker 1: treat everybody really well. So you even treat slubs like
Speaker 1: me pretty well on the radio. So thank you.
Speaker 2: Well, you forced me to do this one today, so
Speaker 2: I had no choice.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, it just happened to have this one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars gift card at Travis Matthew Clayton Kershaw.
Speaker 1: Visit Travis matthew dot com and received twenty percent off
Speaker 1: your first order when you sign up for emails. We'll
Speaker 1: do that later. I'll sign you up, all right, Happy
Speaker 1: for Dave