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Earlier this year, Parton’s husband Carl Dean died at 82.

“I still feel like I can get people out this next month if I need to,” Kershaw said, before cracking a grin: “And then, I don’t have to do that anymore.”

If this is the end of the line for Kershaw, however, he is going out on his own terms.

After being limited by injuries for much of the past three seasons — including missing all of last year’s World Series run with toe and knee injuries that ultimately required offseason surgery — the three-time Cy Young Award winner decided to return to the Dodgers this season for one last crack at a championship chase.

“I didn’t want it to be because of an injury that I stopped playing, or to be because I just couldn’t get anybody out anymore. This was perfect. It really was. It was the perfect way to do it.”