If Clayton Kershaw tomorrow can throw seven scoreless innings and allow two hits, as he did in his first go-round with the Chicago Cubs in the National League Championship Series … I think it would be time to say “all is forgiven”.

All is forgiven for the rocky outings in previous NLCS and postseason appearances. The 3-6 record, the ERA of about 7.00.

If he can keep under control a team that scored 18 runs in its final two games in Los Angeles, the team that won 103 regular-season games and the team that will be backed by a howling crowd of Cubs fans desperate to see their team clinch a place in the World Series for the first time since 1945 …

Well, under those conditions “postseason Kershaw” would begin to rival “regular-season Kershaw” for excellence — if he can dominate them again.

Kershaw as the Game 6 starter is about the only reason why Dodgers fans cling to the hope that their club can still get to the World Series.

The three-time Cy Young winner seems like the only pitcher who might be able to stand up to this tidal wave of Cubs momentum and decades of pent-up demand that they succeed.

He is the one man who might get enough strikeouts to help out the nervous defense behind him … while rising above the unwitting desire of the plate umpire to give Cubs batters the benefit of the doubt.

If Kershaw can get through seven, then Kenley Jansen can come on in relief and probably get the final six outs to force a Game 7.

And getting to Game 7 is key, and not for the obvious reasons.

A winner-take-all game might leave the Cubs nervous and twitchy again, because humans can’t help but think about everything that is at stake — and how awful it would be to fail again.

If the Dodgers get to Game 7 … we’re not thinking they will roll over the Cubs. But on the other team’s field, with their fans curled up into fetal balls of anxiety, the Dodgers ought to be comparatively loose — especially if Kershaw the day before had put the Cubs back in a slump.

Rich Hill would start the game, and he went six scoreless earlier in this series and, who knows, Kershaw might be able to come back and get an out or two. Not that Dodgers fans would expect it, because getting his team past Game 6 against the “this-is-our-time” Cubbies is all we can really ask for.