A.J. Ellis Talks Clayton Kershaw’s Greatness on MLB Network

When A.J. Ellis was traded for Carlos Ruiz, fans were distraught for many reasons. First off, A.J. had a great clubhouse presence and was able to be that leader when the team needed it. Second, he was Clayton Kershaw’s right-hand man. Fans were concerned that Kershaw would struggle without his best friend, A.J. Ellis, behind the plate.

Well, with Carlos Ruiz being as clutch as he has been in the postseason and Kershaw pitching phenomenally, I think it’s safe to say everything turned out alright.

Luckily, A.J. Ellis is still around to drop knowledge on the greatness that is Clayton Kershaw. He caught up with Jeff Joyce and Brad Lidge on MLB Network Radio to talk about Kershaw and how he has been able to perform so well this postseason. Here are some of the highlights!

A lot of teams take a different approach against Clayton, some are super aggressive early in the count trying to ambush him… other teams, you know, are a little bit more patient… It’s a double-edged sword right there as well because he gets to two strikes with his command and he’ll put you away with some off-speed pitches.

Clayton Understands going out there on short rest that he’s not going to have maybe 100% of his stuff… but what he has is 100% desire to be out there on the mound.

One of Clayton’s greatest attributes is his competitiveness.

All you have to do is, one time, tell Clayton he can’t do something or he shouldn’t do something and he’s going to find a way to get it done.

In case you miss the dynamic duo in action, here is a throwback to Clayton Kershaw’s ebautoful no-hitter:

Clayton Kershaw will be starting game 6 in an elimination game for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The pressure is on, but Kershaw has shown before that he can thrive under these conditions. Like A.J. Ellis said, one of Kershaw’s best attributes is his competitiveness, and you just know that he is going to bring everything he has on Saturday!