Kemp prolongs clubhouse exit

Matt Kemp sat in the Dodgers clubhouse Sunday night, his gaze flitting between the contents of his locker when Yasiel Puig put a hand on his shoulder and bid him farewell.

To this point, Kemp had mostly been left alone.

His teammates had showered and dashed out of Dodger Stadium, the sting of losing Game 5 of the World Series and watching the Boston Red Sox lift the Commissioner’s Trophy on the Dodgers’ field too overwhelming for them to linger. Not for Kemp. Even 30 minutes after the Dodgers lost 5-1, he hadn’t changed out of his uniform pants or undershirt. He hadn’t packed much in his duffel bag.

“For these guys, they were here last year and to come back two years in a row and to lose two years in a row, it probably hurts them a little bit worse,” Kemp said. “But I’m right there with them. We battled all year. A lot of people counted us out, didn’t really think that we were gonna make it to where we made it to. So, I’m proud of my guys. We fought through a lot of adversity, injuries, everything, shows the character of this team. Hopefully we come back next year bigger, badder, stronger.” My guys, he said. We. Kemp, 34, wants to remain a Dodger. He wants to accomplish something with the team that drafted him in 2003 and gave him his first big payday.

But practicality may win out.

Kemp has one season remaining on the $160-million deal he signed in Los Angeles in 2012, before he was shipped down the coast, then east and back again. His steep rate of $21.75 million might motivate the Dodgers to trade him.

He was one for nine with a home run in the World Series and made only three starts in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Sunday night might have been his last in the home clubhouse at Dodger Stadium. Maybe the lingering can be explained by a desire to hold on to the moment.

“Who ever thought that I would be back with the Dodgers — and in the World Series?” he said.

Kemp hit .310 in his first 92 games and became an AllStar for the first time since 2012. He cooled off considerably after the break, but his final .290 average and .481 slugging percentage still outpaced other Dodgers outfielders.

Yet, that won’t guarantee Kemp another chance to ride out his final year under contract in the place he calls home.

“This is where I grew up,” Kemp said. “L.A. kinda raised me a little bit as a 21year-old kid from Oklahoma. This is a big city, a lot of bright lights and a lot of things going on, but this will always be home. This will always be love.”

Quiet clubhouse

It was quiet in the clubhouse in which players didn’t shoot corks at the ceiling Sunday night.

So quiet that the noise clubhouse attendants made while stretching packing tape over boxes was heard clearly on the other side of the room.

After a second consecutive World Series defeat, some Dodgers, such as redeyed reliever Pedro Baez, were too overcome by emotion to talk to visitors.

“I’m sorry, not right now,” he said.

Others milled about the clubhouse just long enough to share their reactions.

“Watching them run out on that field sucks,” infielder Max Muncy said. “It’s a crushing feeling. It’s defeating. There’s only one team every year that gets to go home after a win. Really wanted to be it and it wasn’t us, so it’s very disappointing.”

Power trip

The Dodgers’s 235 home runs during the regular season ranked second in the majors, but the Red Sox, led by three from Steve Pearce, hit eight and the Dodgers six in the Series.

A power outage wasn’t the Dodgers’ only problem. They batted .200 (four for 20) with runners in scoring position and never got a hit in three chances with a runner at third base. The Dodgers offense shriveled with runners on base; they hit only .169 (11 for 65).

Boston was dominant in situational hitting from the beginning of the playoffs. The Red Sox finished with a major league record for batting average (.420), on-base percentage (.567) and slugging percentage (.780) with runners in scoring position and two out, including .882 in the Series. In the Series, the Red Sox batted .471.

“The team that played better won the Series, that’s for sure,” Muncy said. “That’s all that matters. It doesn’t matter who’s the better team. All that matters is they played better.”

Still, Dodgers second baseman Chase Utley, who announced in July he was retiring at the conclusion of the 2018 season, reminded his teammates of a few positives.

“We talked a little bit after the game, a few guys said some things,” Utley said. “This group should — I know we lost in the World Series — but this group should be proud of what they accomplished.

“The adversity that we went through during this year, and to put that aside and get to the World Series is pretty special. So I hope everyone in here can hold their heads high and be proud of what they accomplished. It’ll make them better for it.”