Mike Francesa Has Two Different Thoughts on Clayton Kershaw Nine Minutes Apart

This happened earlier this morning but I was gleefully joining the townsfolk in digging the world's biggest trench in order to fill it up with all the bad Clayton Kershaw takes which have been rendered useless after he picked up a win last night to move to 4-1 on the postseason and put his Los Angeles Dodgers in great position to win a World Series. My pant legs are still caked with mud, in fact, but who cares because watching an annoying narrative die a whimpering death is always life-affirming.

Mike Francesa closed the book on Kershaw the player at 8:26 a.m. with a neat and mostly accurate summation.

Then, nine minutes later and perhaps arguing with himself, he noted that this year's efforts will repel the critics.

The favorable way of interpreting this is that Francesa is saying Kershaw did everything he needed to do in order to silence the pesky whispers. For now. But that in the long run, we'll look at his entire body of work and realize he left some opportunities up in the zone, never to see them again.

A more straightforward way is to read it all is Francesa simply stepping on the very point he made less than 10 minutes ago. But, hey, Kershaw has made a lot of otherwise serious people say some funny things through the years. What's one more for the road while he sits and waits for a demon-expelling coronation?