Everything comes down to tonight for Clayton Kershaw and Dodgers

Now, for all you optimists out there, the third time is the charm. Has to be, right? The best pitcher in baseball can’t possibly be the losing pitcher in the Dodgers’ final playoff game of the season three years in a row.

Right? Come on now, I said, right?

If that seems difficult for the faithful to process, it also has to have a sense of unavoidable doom. Been down this road before. Had one disappointing finish.

That was Clayton Kershaw on the mound, taking the loss in each postseason finale. The Dodgers’ leader, their hardest worker, their most accomplished player.

It seems unfair, Kershaw’s greatness carrying that awkward postseason asterisk. But it’s there and it’s not going away until he personally changes his outcome. That’s simply how it is.

So Tuesday night, on three days’ rest, he will take the mound, the Dodgers’ season on the line, followers both hopeful and uncertain, Kershaw’s focus on tonight, not his legacy.

Kershaw’s postseason numbers read: 1-6, 4.99 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP, opponent batting average .230, 10.77 strikeouts per nine innings and 2.81 runs support per nine innings.

He’ll have to raise that bar tonight, have to clearly outpitch Mets rookie left-hander Steven Matz, hush critics who maintain he can’t win in the postseason.

If the Dodgers’ season is to survive, if they are to return home for a final Game 5 showdown between Zack Greinke and Jacob deGrom, they will need Kershaw at his very best Tuesday night, Kershaw impervious to criticism, dominant, willing the Dodgers’ season on.

He actually has pitched well on short rest his previous two postseason outings until -- much like in his series opener against the Mets -- he appeared to wear down in the seventh. The Dodgers could try to be conservative with him in Game 4 and remove him after six regardless of how well he’s pitching, but that would mean turning the game and the season over to an untrustworthy bullpen. A year later and it’s the same story there, too, the Dodgers with no one they can truly trust in the seventh and eighth innings.

The rotation was a problem since before the season began, the Dodgers’ new management assembling three pitchers battling -- or with a history of -- injury. Two broke down in April and the third, Brett Anderson, proved better than most expected, but still a long way from the kind of postseason-caliber starter they need now.

The Dodgers moved on with really only two reliable starters in Kershaw and Greinke. If they are to survive New York and advance, it will still be the same story.

Only it begins now with their best player, one who could use some real offensive support, one who has -- unfairly or not -- a postseason demon he can eradicate Tuesday night.