It’s rare for someone’s 441st career start to be a totally new experience, as Saturday night will be for Clayton Kershaw when he starts a regular-season game at Fenway Park for the first time in his decorated career.

Then again, the Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander is a rarity in every sense of the word.

A guaranteed first-ballot Hall of Famer, Kershaw is in his 18th big-league season. He’s spent his entire professional career in this one organization.

Some historical context to drive home how staggering these numbers are: Kershaw is one of 94 starting pitchers in Major League Baseball history who’s made at least 440 starts. Among them, he’s the 26th left-hander, and just the seventh National League southpaw.

But how many of these 94 stalwart starters racked up this many career starts for a single franchise? Kershaw is the eighth, and the first member to join since Jim Palmer, who finished his career in 1984.

And, he is the only NL lefty.

One of one.

Needless to say, several Red Sox players were surprised to hear that Saturday would be Kershaw’s first regular-season start in Boston.

“Really? Oh wow,” said Lucas Giolito, who grew up in Los Angeles. Kershaw had already won his first of three Cy Young awards by the time Giolito was drafted out of nearby Harvard Westlake High School in 2012. “I remember watching him when I was in high school.”

The Giolito family allegiances weren’t loyal to the local team, though. His mom grew up a Twins fan from Minnesota and his father is from Queens, a Mets fan turned Yankees fan.

“In LA, at that point I think my dad had like, switched allegiances to the Yankees, just because he wanted to root for the team that was winning, which I thought was weird,” Giolito said with a chuckle.

Anyway, back to Kershaw.

“Getting to go to Dodger Stadium, I got to watch some really great players, including Kershaw,” Giolito recalled. “I wasn’t a fan of any team, to be honest, but you have to have an appreciation for greatness. And he represents greatness in that city.”

Greatness, indeed. Kershaw is an All-Star this year for the 11th time in 18 seasons. In addition to his three Cy Youngs, he’s won two World Series, a Gold Glove, five ERA titles and the 2014 NL MVP. In 2011, he pitched his way to the rare Triple Crown (leading one’s league in wins, strikeouts, and ERA).

“You start talking about the greatest Dodgers of all time, he’s in the conversation,” said manager Alex Cora.

“He’s always been kind of relentlessly routine-oriented and relentlessly himself, and I think the game has rewarded him for the work and the time,” said longtime teammate Walker Buehler, who considers Kershaw a role model as well as a close friend. “For me, really special to have spent seven years playing with him.”

Kershaw also won MLB’s prestigious Roberto Clemente award in 2012. The annual accolade is given “to the player who best represents the game of Baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.” To be in contention, a player must be nominated by their ball club.

“I think probably the biggest compliment to him is that everyone that plays with him says the same thing about him, and it’s just that he’s a better person than he is player,” said Buehler. “Over the years we got pretty close… He signed a pair of cleats for me and wrote something like, ‘I didn’t know I would love someone or be as close to someone that’s so different from me.’”

“He’s an amazing dude, which makes it even better, you know?” Giolito said. “Easy way to put it: he’s going to have a statue (at Dodger Stadium).”

Cora recalled the first time the Red Sox faced Kershaw, on March 10, 2008. Cora was in his fourth and final season with the club, and the lefty was a 19-year-old top prospect. Kershaw retired the side in order in the fourth, capping off his outing with what the Herald’s game story described as “a banana-bending curveball (complete with yellow warning signs) that nearly caused the left-handed-hitting Sean Casey to bend over backward” and led then-manager Terry Francona to say, “I wish he had a Red Sox uniform on.”

“That’s when we knew he was good,” Cora recalled Saturday.

Even if Kershaw had pitched for multiple teams, the longevity of his career would set him apart from the vast majority of players today. Being a one-team guy makes him a true anomaly. He could very well be the last of his kind.

“It’s become increasingly harder to stick around,” said Giolito. “So anytime you see a player that’s still doing it… it’s kind of like, here’s the blueprint, here’s the roadmap to having sustained success for many, many years.”

“I think that speaks to what he means to that organization. No matter what, through thick and thin– I mean, mostly thick, he’s been really good for a long time, he still is,” Giolito added. “You’re not going to see as much of that anymore. I think baseball is much more business-oriented. But every generation or so you have that special player where an organization does not want to lose that guy. And so obviously, Kershaw fits that mold.”

Kershaw’s only career start at Fenway was Game 1 of the 2018 World Series. It’s one of his 39 career postseason games, spread out over 12 Dodgers playoff runs between his 2008 rookie season – when he was just 20 years old – and ‘23. (An injury kept him from pitching last October.)

“It’s super valuable (to have) a player that has experienced winning and knows what it’s like and what you need to do to win in the regular season and then also win in the playoffs, because once you get to the playoffs it’s a different environment,” said Giolito. “To segue to our team, that’s why I think having (Alex) Bregman is huge for us, and Walker as well. I think it’s hugely important for a clubhouse that wants to build a winning culture to have a player like that. I think the Dodgers have been very lucky to have Kershaw for all these years.”

“He’s had a lot of teammates that were probably a lot like me,” said Buehler with a smile, “but there’s only one of him.”