Clayton Kershaw reached milestone as his ex-catcher tried ‘to will it over the phone'
Barnes was in Arizona, ramping up to restart his season with the San Francisco Giants. Lying on his bed — his young son sleeping next to him — he watched Kershaw's historic 3,000-strikeout feat come and go on his iPhone.
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'I would I could have been there,' Barnes acknowledged. 'I'm just super excited for him. It's an unbelievable accomplishment.'
Barnes, a Southern California native, was with the Dodgers for 11 seasons before he was DFA'd on May 14, just three days before Kershaw made his season debut. It marked the end of an elongated partnership between the two, one of mutual respect and reliance.
The 35-year-old backstop signed a minor-league contract with the rival Giants on June 27, but is currently stationed at the team's complex in Scottsdale.
Barnes, like everyone else, watched the ups and downs of the evening. Kershaw pushed the limits of his pitch count, tormenting his adoring fans with two-strike counts that did not result in a K. Barnes was living through it, just like everyone else.
'I was just like, 'Man, throw the curveball, throw the curveball,'' Barnes said. 'Get to two strikes and finish him. I was going along with the game, trying to get a strikeout with him. Trying to will it over the phone.'
After the game, Barnes received a FaceTime call from Dodgers executive VP Lon Rosen, who was with the superstar pitcher, bouncing around from one postgame celebration to the next.
Rosen put Barnes on with Kershaw. This is how it should have been, given the pair's history. This should have been in person. But it's where they were, where the Dodgers were.
Barnes had just a .518 OPS in 13 games for the Dodgers this season, with declining defensive metrics. The organization had Dalton Rushing, an exciting catching prospect that they were ready to call up. Ultimately, that reality overrode the sentimentality of having Barnes behind the plate to complete Kershaw's journey.
So, it led them to this: a conversation on FaceTime.
'Kersh was around,' Barnes said. 'Obviously, he was getting thousands of text messages from everybody. I texted him and all that. He was just doing his thing after the game. Trying to comprehend it all, I would assume.
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'I just said, 'Congrats, dude, I'm proud of you.' And that was pretty much it, I let him get back to what he was doing.'
Barnes was proactive in taking the attention off himself when discussing Kershaw. At one point, he stopped himself mid comment about not being there. 'This isn't about me or anything like that.'
'I'm just happy to be back there for as many as I was,' Barnes said. 'He was a great teammate, a great friend.'
The night was, of course, not about Barnes. But it's also hard to divorce Barnes from the moment, given how much of a role he played in Kershaw's career. Barnes was behind the plate for 551 of those K's, spending more years as Kershaw's teammate than anyone else. Only A.J. Ellis, who caught Kershaw for the first eight-plus years of his big-league career, has more strikeouts received.
Barnes's career stats will never stand out. He's collected just 35 homers and 4.4 WAR. His legacy is directly tied to Kershaw's. And in some ways, Kershaw's to him.
'I always took pride when I caught him, to go out there or have him throw up zeroes,' Barnes said. 'I took it real personal when we didn't do well. But he's the one throwing the ball.
'Obviously, (this milestone) means more to me because of how close I am with Kersh. But he did that. I think he's one of the greatest pitchers of all time.'
After the game, Kershaw had a roster full of friends and teammates to celebrate with. He had his family, including his wife Ellen and their four children. He had Dodgers staffers, coaches, and ballpark workers — a host of people who have been by his side. He had the 53,000 cheering fans.
'I told my teammates, individual awards are great,' Kershaw said. 'But if you don't have anybody to celebrate with, it doesn't matter.'
But Barnes wasn't there. The backstop knows that at some point, the two will catch up and discuss it all. They just couldn't do it on the night it mattered most.
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'It's so hard to get to 3,000, man. You have to pitch so long and you have to stay healthy,' Barnes said. 'I don't know how many people will do that again, honestly.
'You want to be there. … I wish I could have been there for him. But yeah, it is what it is.'
(Top photo of Clayton Kershaw and Austin Barnes: Dennis Wierzbicki / Imagn Images)
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