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SAN FRANCISCO -- Clayton Kershaw playfully took ground balls at shortstop off the bat of third-base coach Tim Wallach during batting practice Wednesday afternoon at AT&T Park.

It was a bit awkward since he's a left-handed thrower, of course, but Kershaw scooped several balls up the middle and shoveled to second using his glove. He went into the hole, spun and made a nice, firm throw on the money to Dee Gordon.

It gave the impression that, should every other player on the Los Angeles Dodgers' roster capable of playing shortstop go down, he could probably do it.

Why not? There's very little Kershaw hasn't accomplished for the Dodgers in keeping other teams from scoring this season. He leads the major leagues in ERA (1.88), WHIP (.92) and ERA+. He leads the National League with 224 strikeouts, fewer than only Yu Darvish and Max Scherzer in the major leagues.

He's a 25-year-old Cy Young winner who, by virtually all measures, is having his finest season. After he polishes off his regular season with Friday night's start at Dodger Stadium against the Colorado Rockies, he figures to become only the third pitcher since 2000 to finish a season with a sub-2.00 ERA, joining Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez.

He will be only the second Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher to do it. The other, of course, was the man he's so often compared to, Sandy Koufax, who did it four times.

Yet, at 15-9, Kershaw is tied for 10th in the majors in wins going into Thursday's games. He is tied for 22nd in winning percentage.

In recent seasons, Cy Young voters have become astute enough to look beyond wins in selecting the league's best pitcher, so Kershaw stands little chance of missing out on his second Cy Young Award in three seasons. The San Francisco Giants' Tim Lincecum won the award in 2009 going 15-7. Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners won it in 2010 at 13-12.

But does that go far enough?

There has been a movement among some statistically-minded fans, led by MLB Network anchor Brian Kenny, to get rid of the win as an official statistic. Many of those people also believe Kershaw should be the league MVP. On Twitter, the campaign trends under #killthewin. Kershaw could be the poster child for the movement, but neither he nor fellow Cy Young winner Zack Greinke, the Dodgers’ 1-A, is in favor of such a drastic move.

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LOS ANGELES -- The day before Clayton Kershaw took the mound Sunday night, he sat down for a conversation with ESPN's Orel Hershiser.

The two iconic Dodgers pitchers discussed the mechanics and mentality of pitching, but Hershiser shifted gears and asked Kershaw about the Dodgers' dramatic midseason turnaround. Kershaw discussed a few factors, then got around to Zack Greinke.

"He's pitching, basically, spring training games during the season, and he's competing, getting guys out," Kershaw said, "and now he's got his stuff to where he wants it, and he's dominant."

That makes two of them.

In the list of far-from-ideal circumstances major league teams can get themselves into, the Tampa Bay Rays -- as solid a team as there is -- stumbled into a good one this weekend. They blew a six-run, seventh-inning lead Friday, then had to face Greinke and Kershaw, two of the past eight Cy Young winners on earth, in back-to-back games.

There's fighting your way uphill and then there's getting to base camp on K-2. This was some high-altitude degree of difficulty. As the Dodgers get closer to making the question how far they can go in the playoffs, not whether they can get there, it is their greatest asset, the scariest weapon.

The night after Greinke pitched into the seventh inning without giving up a run, Kershaw pitched around four Dodgers errors -- three by shortstop Dee Gordon -- in an 8-2 win over the Rays on Sunday. He pitched eight innings, giving up three hits and striking out eight, though he almost surely could have finished it if manager Don Mattingly hadn't been concerned about keeping his pitch count in the 100 range -- likely mindful of a postseason run.

Kershaw is big on saying nothing affects him -- not the attention, not the paltry run support and not the defense behind him -- but he's not immune to all of it, according to those who know him.

"I just have a good feeling whenever he's on the mound, and then put him on a national stage [on ESPN] and let him pitch in front of all his peers. That matters to him," catcher A.J. Ellis said. "He had an edge about him today that was fun to be a part of."

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