that now barely brushes 90 mph, it’s nowhere as easy as it once might have seemed.

He had his shoulder repaired surgically two winters ago, remember. This past winter he had a torn meniscus repaired, along with procedures to address a variety of maladies in his left foot: bone spurs, arthritis and a ruptured plantar plate in his left foot.

(The layman might not think those are as important as the arm or shoulder or elbow, but you try throwing a pitch when your legs or feet are compromised and see how far it gets you.)

Anyway, Kershaw’s return to the big stage following three rehab starts for Triple-A Oklahoma City didn’t get off to a rousing start, with a 38-pitch first inning, three hits, two walks and a 3-0 deficit. He threw 12 four-seam fastballs in the inning, only four of which touched 90 mph, and Logan O’Hoppe stroked one of those for a two-run single. His curve was in the 70s, and of the 17 sliders he threw in that inning, only three drew swings and misses, one of those a half-swing.

Things settled down for Kershaw considerably, especially after his team got those three runs back in the bottom of the inning. Taylor Ward homered off a 72.9 mph curve in the third inning, and Kershaw gave up a fifth run on a walk, double and sacrifice fly in the fourth, his last inning of work.

He threw 82 pitches, gave up five hits, five runs, walked three, struck out two, left with an 11.25 ERA but didn’t get the loss. He threw 34 sliders for the game, 29 of them to right-handed batters, and induced 19 swings and six whiffs. Of the 28 four-seam fastballs he threw, the average pitch velocity was 89.2 — and the average exit velocity was 99.3.

I asked manager Dave Roberts before the game if he had any concern that Kershaw might be a little too amped up in his first start back.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a worry,” Roberts said. “It’s a possibility. How that manifests, (maybe) some overthrows. I think at the end of the day he’ll be able to manage those emotions, but I think it’s completely understandable that there’s going to be some extra adrenaline, emotions, nerves.”

I’ve often wondered if the Dodgers should have brought in Greg Maddux, the master of succeeding without a blazing fastball, to be a consultant or at least a sounding board for Kershaw. Remember, Maddux was finishing his career with the Dodgers in 2008 when Kershaw was beginning his.

But Kershaw can likely figure this out on his own and in fact probably already has. The trick is staying healthy ... and in that, on this Dodger staff, he is hardly alone. Given that three members of the rotation, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki, are currently on the injured list, Kershaw becomes a long-awaited reinforcement. Snell, in fact, was transferred to the 60-day injured list to make room for Kershaw on the roster.

More to the point, Kershaw is still the soul of this franchise. From the moment he took the hill on May 25, 2008 against St. Louis for his first Dodgers’ start — six innings, two earned runs, seven strikeouts and a no-decision — it was evident that he was a big part of this team’s future, and he didn’t disappoint. Heck, it may have been apparent from the moment when he baffled Sean Casey with a classic 12-to-6 curveball during a telecast from Vero Beach that spring and had Vin Scully saying, “Ohhhh, what a curveball!!”

I remember that early in that 2008 season those of us in the media kept bugging then-manager Joe Torre about the kid who was so impressive at Double-A Jacksonville, and he kept preaching patience.

And I also remember writing the day of his major league debut that if this rookie was indeed the real deal, it probably wouldn’t have been a bad idea to save the scorecard from that game. Sadly, I didn’t take my own advice.

Now in his 18th season with this franchise, it seems increasingly likely that Kershaw is one of the rare players who will end his career with the same team with which he started. That wasn’t always a sure thing, especially when he reached free agency twice and had a choice of staying with the Dodgers or signing with his hometown Texas Rangers.

Each time he returned to L.A. And in an interview with MLB Network a few days ago he all but made it official that, whenever he hangs ’em up, it would be as a Dodger. Asked if he considered it important to start and finish here, he said:

“You know, I think if you asked me that you know three or four years ago, I would have said maybe not. But now, yes, I think it’s super special to get to be a part of it. I love being here, I love being a Dodger. I’m just super grateful to get to put on that uniform again on Saturday.

“I think as you get older, you just get a little bit more grateful for all the things that you’re able to do and be a part of. And being a Dodger for this long is — there’s a lot of gratitude on my end. So I’m excited to get going again and contribute and definitely excited to, you know, maybe end my career here at some point, I don’t know when, but maybe some point. And I’ll always be a Dodger. That’s pretty cool.”

Trust me, he’s not the only one who thinks so.