LOS ANGELES (AP) —that he’s in decline. He’s eager to prove the doubters wrong while wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers uniform.The ace agreed to a $93 million http://www.twinsfanproshop.com/authentic-erick-aybar-jersey , three-year contract Friday after initially opting out of his previous deal and choosing free agency.“There’s been a lot of people saying that I’m in decline or not going to be as good as I once was,” he said. “I’m looking forward to proving a lot of people wrong with that.”Kershaw opted out of a $215 million, seven-year contract that had two seasons remaining at a total of $65 million. Signed in January 2014, it called for salaries of $32 million next year and $33 million in 2020.The new deal involves a $23 million signing bonus, payable in equal installments on June 30 in each of the next three years, and annual salaries of $23,333,333.“I wanted to stay here, so financial, everything aside, it was more valuable to me to just stay here,” he said.Also Friday, the Dodgers made $17.9 million qualifying offers to two of their other free agents: pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu and catcher Yasmani Grandal.Kershaw gets an additional $28 million in guaranteed money. The new agreement includes $4 million annually in performance bonuses, in four $1 million increments for 24 Anibal Sanchez Jersey , 26, 28 and 30 games started, which could raise the deal’s value to $105 million over three years.The left-hander also can earn award bonuses of $1.5 million for winning the NL Cy Young Award or $500,000 for finishing second or third in the voting.Kershaw, his wife Ellen and their two young children make their offseason home in the Dallas area, and if the Texas Rangers had had a winning season “it would have been something to consider for sure,” he said.“It really wasn’t as much of a question for me this time around,” he said. “My kiddos love it here. Ellen loves it here. I love it here. I love the team here, and there’s not many opportunities that meet all the criteria that Ellen and I would be looking for. And myself personally, a chance to win every single year, it doesn’t come around like this in LA very often.”The money designated a signing bonus will not be subject to state income because Texas does not have a state income tax.Winner of the NL Cy Young in 2011, ’13 and ’14, Kershaw was limited to 26 starts this year because of a back injury and went 9-5 with a 2.73 ERA while striking out 155. The Dodgers lost in the World Series for the second straight season, with Kershaw taking the loss in Sunday’s season-ending Game 5 defeat to Boston. His average fastball velocity dropped by 2 mph in the past year to 91 mph.“I plan on getting back to that level that I was at Eduardo Escobar Jersey ,” he said. “There’s a lot of guys older than me, and there’s a lot of guys with more innings than me in the big leagues that are still maintaining their velocity.”A herniated disk in his back sidelined him in 2016. He had a less significant back problem this year and a shoulder issue.“No more DL time,” he said. “From there, hopefully the getting people out thing will take care of itself.”At 30, Kershaw has experienced a fastball velocity decrease, and he missed time this season because of two stints on the disabled.“While I did have a little bit of a back issue this year, it wasn’t very significant. I missed more time this year because of the shoulder,” he said. “I really believe that for three years I can be just as good as I ever have been. And I’m not saying I can’t be good past that. But that’s as long as I was willing to commit to right now.”Kershaw remains the face of the franchise and his dedicated work habits have filtered down to the younger pitchers on the staff.“He’s made as much of an impact as you can on an organization in terms of the success we’ve had,” Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations, said Thursday.Kershaw has a career 153-69 regular-season record with a 2.39 ERA in 318 games but it’s in the postseason where his numbers drop. He’s 9-10 with a 4.32 ERA. He gave up four runs in seven innings in Game 5 of the World Series.“Winning is still the most important thing for me,” he said. PHOENIX (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers picked a bad time to have their first losing streak in two weeks.Plagued by another night of missed opportunities and Ross Stripling’s shaky start, the Dodgers lost 7-2 to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday night to fall to second place in the NL West.The Dodgers (88-71) rallied to tie Arizona in the ninth inning Tuesday night, only to have Eduardo Escobar hit a walkoff homer in the bottom half. That loss http://www.twinsfanproshop.com/authentic-jake-odorizzi-jersey , combined with Colorado’s win over Philadelphia, dropped the Dodgers’ division lead to a half-game.With Rockies (88-70) rolling over the Phillies 14-0, the Dodgers couldn’t bounce back from Arizona’s three-run second inning against Stripling (8-6) or take advantage of an early opportunity against Zack Greinke. Los Angeles has lost consecutive games for the first time since Sept. 10-11 and is now a half-game back in the NL West.“As far as getting to the postseason, it takes us, we control our own fate,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We’ve got to win baseball games. For us, there’s a little back against the wall.”The Diamondbacks displayed plenty of power in their final home game. A.J. Pollock hit a three-run home run, David Peralta had his 30th of the season and Socrates Brito hit his first big-league homer in two years.Greinke (15-11) overcame a shaky start to allow two runs and strike out six in six innings.The Diamondbacks struggled early in September to fall out of the playoff race, but made an impact by winning the final two games against the Dodgers.“I understand what happened in the early part of the month, but this is really all we had left,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “We beat the Dodgers two out of three and hurt their chances of advancing.”The Dodgers had a big chance against Greinke in the third inning, loading the bases with one out. They came away with nothing after Yasiel Puig lined out to shortstop and Yasmani Grandal grounded out to second.“It was just the one hit or the at-bat that eluded us,” Roberts said. “That Puig at-bat, it goes a different way Eddie Rosario Jersey , it’s a completely different game. But that’s baseball.”Stripling allowed two runs in 3 1/3 innings in his return to the rotation against San Diego his last time out. He didn’t last that long against the Diamondbacks.Arizona hit for the reverse cycle against him in a three-run second inning, starting with Brito’s leadoff homer. Stripling was pulled after walking Peralta to load the bases with two outs, but Pedro Baez ended the threat by striking out Paul Goldschmidt.Stripling allowed seven of the 12 batters he faced to reach base, allowing three runs on five hits.“It’s kind of tough when you’re trying to help a team win, help a team that’s battling for playoff implications and you can’t get through two innings,” Stripling said. “It stinks.”The Dodgers had some hard-hit balls of Greinke early, taking a 2-0 lead on run-scoring hits by Cody Bellinger and Stripling. The right-hander escaped the jam in the third inning and allowed two more hits the rest of the way.“They were hitting the ball pretty hard the first couple of innings and just had a lot of good defensive plays and scored some runs,” Greinke said. “Then I started pitching better after that.”RARE SWITCH-OFFThe eighth inning featured a rare switch-pitcher facing a switch-hitter.Dodgers reliever Pat Venditte got the first two outs of the inning pitching right-handed, then switched to lefty with Ildemaro Vargas on deck. Vargas, who was swinging left-handed, saw Venditte switch and he asked the bat boy to bring another helmet so he could bat right-handed.Venditte won the switch-off, getting Vargas to fly out to right.TRAINER’S ROOMDodgers 3B Justin Turner got hit left thumb checked out after the game for swelling from a hard-hit ball by Goldschmidt in the fifth inning. He remained in the game and Roberts he was sore, but didn’t think there was anything wrong structurally.UP NEXTDodgers: Los Angeles could use another strong outing from LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu Friday against San Francisco. He tossed six scoreless innings to beat San Diego his last start.Diamondbacks: LHP Patrick Corbin is 4-2 with a 2.96 ERA in 15 road starts heading into Friday’s game against San Diego.