CHICAGO — With his hands on his knees and his back to home plate, Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw studied the flight of the ball screaming toward center field in the seventh inning on Sunday night off the bat of Chicago Cubs second baseman Javier Baez. He watched as Joc Pederson backed up, and backed up more.

“My throat went into my stomach,” Kershaw later told the Dodgers’ pitching coach, Rick Honeycutt.

Kershaw had convinced Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts to leave him in the game to face Baez, so he needed this out. So when the breath-holding drive landed in Pederson’s glove just in front of the Wrigley Field ivy, Kershaw exhaled.

As he walked off the mound for the final time in Sunday’s 1-0 win, Kershaw flashed a sheepish grin, knowing he had gotten away with one. Criticized for his past postseason performances, Kershaw, one of the best pitchers in the sport, has taken his game to another level this October.

His left arm rescued the Dodgers from the brink of elimination in a National League division series. And in Game 2 of the N.L. Championship Series against Chicago, Kershaw delivered his best postseason start, evening the best-of-seven series at a game apiece.