Column: If Clayton Kershaw gets mad when he gets taken out of a game, good. He should get mad.

It’s become an annual event at Dodger Stadium, much like Friday night fireworks, only more explosive.

It’s “Clayton Kershaw Lack Of Appreciation Day.’’

The script has involved different supporting actors and props in recent years, but the story is always the same.

The best pitcher on the planet carries the Dodgers into the late innings, but clearly begins to tire. He wants to keep pitching, but his manager wants to save his arm.

The manager wins. Kershaw gets pulled. There is an animated discussion. Kershaw shakes his head. Kershaw scowls. Everyone interprets.

The Dodgers are annoying their best player! He’s never going to forget this! They’re going to lose him one day and then they’ll be sorry!

Big sigh. It happened again Wednesday in the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory over the Washington Nationals. Kershaw was pulled after seven innings of giving up one run and three hits. He had thrown 95 pitches, only his ninth-highest pitch count of the season. He had struck out nine, equaling his third-best mark of the season.

Making matters more unsettling, he had just batted, so he rightfully assumed he was still in the game. Yet he was told to remain in the dugout by manager Dave Roberts, who clearly should have never let him hit but apparently decided to pull him at the last minute.

It was almost as ugly as two years ago, when Kershaw confronted then-manager Don Mattingly in the dugout when he was pulled after five innings.

This time, discomfort turned to chill, with Kershaw carefully choosing his words in his postgame news conference.

When asked how he felt, he told reporters, “There’s a lot going on there both ways. Without elaborating, that’s the way it went.’’

When asked again, he said, “I’m going to say something cliché, but it is what it is.’’

When asked one more time, he said, “I think I answered it as best as I’m going to.’’

In his 10 years as a Dodger, Kershaw has always been the epitome of clubhouse correctness and class. He has had plenty of reason to criticize or cry for help, but he has consistently demurred. He never rips anyone but himself. He never talks about his surroundings with anything other than optimism or praise.

So, basically, when he says little, he says a lot. On Wednesday afternoon he clearly issued the message of irritation, which leads us back to all that interpretation, which raises the same two annual questions.

Are the Dodgers wrong in pulling Kershawwhen he still wants to pitch? And do they have to worry about annoying him into bad feelings that could fester and ultimately alienate?

The answers are no and no.

The Dodgers are not only being smart in closely monitoring Keshaw’s pitch count, they are fulfilling an obligation to their franchise and their fans. This is not about June, it’s about October. This is not about enabling him to win another Cy Young, it’s about keeping him upright to deliver a World Series championship.

Kershaw is no longer a boy wonder, he’s 29 years old, he’s averaged 185 innings a season for a decade, and he’s less than a year removed from suffering a herniated disk in his lower back that was not surgically repaired. More than ever, he needs to be treated with care, and preserved for when it really matters.

It is no coincidence that, even though the numbers might seem otherwise, Kershaw had his most effective postseason last October after throwing the second-fewest innings of his career during the regular season. The Dodgers won three of his four starts. He came out of the bullpen for a series-clinching save. He was once again on the mound for the Dodgers’ final loss of the season, but that was as much about the Chicago Cubs’ magic as any nagging postseason demons.

No matter how much Kershaw pleads or glares, the Dodgers need to continue to pull him when his rising pitch count matches his dwindling energy, which seemed obvious Wednesday after he allowed four line-drive outs in the previous two innings.

Kershaw will get mad. He should get mad. That’s part of what makes him great. It has been a true pleasure watching the best pitcher on the planet act like he owns the entire planet.

But history has shown, he’ll get over it. When it comes to competing, Kershaw never seems to hold a grudge against anybody but opposing hitters.

The Dodgers trade away his favorite catcher A.J. Ellis, yet he keeps pitching. They never really shore up his surroundings with a big July trade, yet he keeps pitching.

Kershaw surely has an ego, but he never brings it to work with him, and here’s guessing his anger over being pulled dissipates by the time he returns to the stadium the next day for an early-afternoon workout in those colorful baggy shorts.

If the Dodgers win a championship, nobody is going to remember a June scowl. If Kershaw can pitch his way into a ring, nobody has to worry about him fleeing when he has a chance to opt out of his contract after next season

Of course, after all this, if the Dodgers feel still really bad about pulling Clayton Kershaw out of games, there is a way the front office can placate their best player.

Just find him another starting pitcher, OK? While they’re at it, maybe one more bat?

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