LOS ANGELES — In March 2008, two months before the shaggy-haired, clean-shaven, 20-year-old phenom recorded the first of his 3,000+ career strikeouts, Clayton Kershaw had already left a legendary broadcaster wonderstruck.
Wearing the No. 96 with no name on the back in a spring training game, the promising prospect released a mesmerizing breaking ball that appeared to drop from the sky before buckling the knees of Sean Casey and striking out the 12-year MLB veteran. Vin Scully dubbed the pitch “Public Enemy No. 1.” That curveball, along with a biting slider and precise fastball, would eventually make Kershaw the left-hander of a generation.
Seventeen years later, with four children and speckles of gray in his beard marking the passage of time, the 37-year-old future Hall of Famer authored his latest historical feat when he struck out Vinny Capra on his 100th pitch of the night to end the sixth inning Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.
(Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
With that, Kershaw became the 20th player ever to record 3,000 strikeouts.
It’s possible he’s also the last to do it, at least for the foreseeable future, a testament to the longevity and sustained excellence that has defined his Hall of Fame career.
In an age of openers, bullpen games, shortened starts, optimized arms and triple-digit velocity, Kershaw, who has recorded 200 strikeouts seven times and has never missed a full season in his illustrious 18-year career, perseveres as a lasting remnant of a bygone era.
And though a litany of injuries over the last decade have zapped some of the life from his left arm and prevented the Dodgers’ all-time leader in strikeouts and wins above replacement from remaining the workhorse he was when he won three Cy Young Awards, an MVP and a Triple Crown in his 20s, he persists. His fastball now sits in the high-80s in velocity, rather than the mid-90s, and his strikeout rate has steadily declined from his prime. But even without the overpowering stuff he once possessed, he continues to find ways to prevent runs, largely through precision, avoiding barrels, grit and guile.
“He knows how to find outs,” catcher Will Smith said. “He knows how to pitch.”
Using the same iconic pitching motion he learned from Oklahoma head coach Skip Johnson, as if his hands and legs were on string, and featuring the same three-pitch mix that will one day get him a plaque in Cooperstown, Kershaw entered Wednesday with a 4-0 record and 2.08 ERA over his last eight starts.
“It’s just again a reminder for me, for anyone, to never bet against that guy,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It doesn’t matter health, stuff, he’s going to will himself to doing whatever the team needs.”
The milestone performance required more determination than Kershaw would have preferred. He did not record his first strikeout against the White Sox until his 51st pitch of the night in the third inning. His next strikeout came on pitch No. 92, tied for the most he had thrown in a game this year, to end the fifth with the Dodgers down 4-2. On the walk down the steps to the dugout, there wasn’t so much as a glance between Kershaw and Roberts. This was the veteran lefty’s night.
He emerged from the dugout to a standing ovation from the crowd that came to see him make history. He got a groundout to start the sixth inning. Michael A. Taylor followed with a double and was caught stealing at third base, sliding into the knee of Max Muncy, who was injured on the play. After a brief pause in the action, Kershaw resumed and ended the frame with his 3,000th strikeout on his 100th pitch of the night. He took his hat off to a raucous crowd and embraced his teammates. A video tribute played, and he retreated to the dugout briefly before emerging for a curtain call.
Clayton Kershaw reaches 3,000 career strikeouts vs. White Sox
Since the start of the live-ball era, Kershaw has the lowest ERA (2.51) and WHIP (1.01) among all pitchers who’ve thrown at least 1,500 innings.
And since his age-30 season in 2018, only Jacob deGrom has a lower ERA than the Dodgers left-hander among pitchers who’ve thrown at least 750 innings in that span.
Often, Kershaw’s desire to play has required pitching through pain.
He has dealt with back, elbow, biceps, shoulder, knee and foot injuries in recent years, the last three of which have required offseason procedures, but he keeps bouncing back. He has made the All-Star team three times in the last six years and 10 times in his distinguished career. Over the last 15 seasons, Kershaw has led the Dodgers in strikeouts 10 times and in innings pitched nine times.
“Somebody will tell me to retire at some point, I’m sure,” he quipped before making his debut this year.
He has reached the point of his career, after electing to play on short-term deals with the only big-league club he has ever known, where the end of every season requires a decision.
In November, at the championship parade, he emotionally claimed he was a “Dodger for life,” before re-signing with the club, but he only wants to continue if he can still be effective and additive.
He has now played more seasons with the club than any pitcher in franchise history. And yet again, as pitching injuries stockpile around him in the Dodgers’ rotation, the team still needs his innings.
“We all know what he means for baseball and this organization,” teammate Miguel Rojas said, “and it’s obviously really important to me playing behind him.”
Rojas has a different perspective than most.
Eleven years ago, in the 11th game of Rojas’ career, he was manning third base in the seventh inning on June 18, 2014, when he gloved a chopper down the line from Troy Tulowitzki near the outfield grass and completed the long throw across the diamond. The play saved the only no-hitter of Kershaw’s career, a 15-strikeout, zero-walk masterpiece.
(Photo by Chris Williams/Icon SMI/Corbis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Two weeks ago, playing behind Kershaw at third base and wearing the same No. 72 he did a decade ago in Los Angeles, Rojas had flashbacks to one of his favorite moments on a baseball field.
“Looking back at that day and that opportunity to be in that lineup, something really special,” said Rojas, who was again back at third base behind Kershaw on Thursday in Colorado. “I reflect on it, and every time I take the field behind him, I still feel like he’s going to throw a no-hitter.”
Kershaw has not thrown another since that June day 11 years ago, but he has added plenty of pages to his Hall of Fame resumé in that time.
Wednesday night’s feat, three years after he became the Dodgers’ all-time strikeout leader, was just the latest chapter. His manager could sense how much this one mattered to Kershaw.
“There’s still more work to be done in the season, but as far as his career, I think that this is the last box,” Roberts said before the start. “This is it. He’s won two championships, and he wants this. He wants to finish this marathon.”
Time and perspective have chipped away at Kershaw’s intense facade. As years have passed, and injuries have accumulated, and his family has grown, and his children have gotten older, Kershaw has routinely expressed how appreciative he is every time he gets to take the mound.
“I just want to be a contributing part of this team, so I’m excited to do that,” Kershaw said before the season. “I don’t take it for granted anymore to get to go out there and pitch at Dodger Stadium.”
He entered this year 32 strikeouts shy of 3,000, a mark only three other left-handers had ever reached before. When he decided to run it back with the Dodgers coming off knee and foot procedures, he claimed he hadn’t thought about the milestone “a whole lot.”
As the number got closer this month, though, that changed — in part because teammate Freddie Freeman would remind him every day.
In a seven-strikeout outing June 8, Kershaw passed teammate Zack Greinke on the all-time strikeout list with No. 2,980. Kershaw fanned five batters his next time out to move 12 strikeouts away.
“Maybe by September I’ll get there,” he joked at the time. “We’ll see. It’s obviously a very cool thing and it’s starting to get a little more on the forefront of the mind, but who knows how long 12 could take me at this point?”
He would not need to wait that long, though it did drag further into his latest start than he might’ve liked.
Kershaw struck out four Nationals batters on June 20 at Dodger Stadium to move eight away from the landmark number when he took the mound last week at Coors Field and struck out five batters while firing six innings of one-run ball, lowering his ERA on the season to 3.03. At 69 pitches, three strikeouts away from 3,000, Roberts decided Kershaw had done enough.
He would get the opportunity to hit the mark at home, something Kershaw admitted “would be very special.”
“I kind of short-hooked him a little bit as far as pitch count,” Roberts admitted, “but I just felt that was in Denver, and maybe, a little bit, I wanted him to do it here.”
Kershaw’s first career strikeout came on a 95-mph fastball against Skip Schumaker, who was born in 1980. His 3,000th career strikeout came on a slider against Capra, who was born in 1996.
With that, Kershaw joined Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer as the only active pitchers to reach the mark.
“I don’t know the next time you’re going to see that again,” said Giants manager Bob Melvin, whose team faced Kershaw earlier this month. “It’s pretty impressive. Longevity, obviously quality. This guy’s been a stud for a long, long time.”
The way pitchers are used in shorter spurts nowadays, along with the proliferation of injuries at the position, means there are no guarantees that the exclusive club will see a 21st member.
(Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images)
Chris Sale is the closest active player to the plateau at 2,528, but he’s 36 years old with a checkered injury history. Gerrit Cole has an opportunity if he returns to look like his usual self, but he’s still more than 700 strikeouts away and will be 35 next season coming off Tommy John surgery.
After that, the remaining candidates are either too young to project or too close to retirement to believe it likely. Charlie Morton is the next closest active player to 3,000 but is 41 years old and still more than 850 strikeouts short. Yu Darvish is the only other active pitcher with at least 2,000 strikeouts, but he’s 38. At 32 years old, Aaron Nola has a chance, too, but he’s still nearly 1,200 strikeouts shy of the mark.
So if Sale or Cole don’t get there, it might be at least a decade into the future before the next best contenders for 3,000 strikeouts emerge after Kershaw.
“I don’t think he’s going to be the last to do it, but maybe at least for a little while,” “said veteran Robbie Ray, who ranks 16th among active pitchers in strikeouts. “It’s a short list, for sure; 3,000 is a lot of strikeouts. You have to throw a lot of innings to get to that. But there’s some young guys coming up that are pretty impressive and put up some big strikeout numbers, so I don’t think anything’s out of the question.”
At 23, Paul Skenes might have the physicality to hold up for the long haul as a perennial ace, but he’s only 239 innings and 280 strikeouts into his career. At 28, Tarik Skubal has the elite arm talent to get there. But entering this year, injuries limited him to an average of 135 innings and 153 strikeouts over the previous four years. Even if he had another 200-strikeout season this year, he would have to average 150 strikeouts every season and pitch into his 40s to approach the mark.
Spencer Strider, Hunter Greene and MacKenzie Gore have all accumulated more than 500 strikeouts before the age of 27, but it will take tremendous consistency and health to eventually approach 3,000. Neither Greene, who underwent Tommy John surgery six years ago, nor Gore has recorded a 200-strikeout season yet. Strider has two under his belt, but he’s coming off a major elbow procedure that wiped out most of his 2024 season.
“The longevity, the consistency, is something that should be valued certainly a lot more,” Roberts said.
Kershaw was the fastest Dodger ever to reach 1,000 strikeouts in 2013. Four years later, he became the fastest to reach 2,000. He’s now the only Dodger to reach the 3,000-strikeout mark while recording all of his punchouts with the franchise.
Before Wednesday, only four pitchers had recorded 3,000 strikeouts with one team.
Only two, Walter Johnson and Bob Gibson, had accomplished the feat while playing for just one team their entire career.
Kershaw, among his many achievements as a Dodger, is now the third.
“He’s going to have a statue at some point,” Roberts said. “We’re trying to win a baseball game, but big moments like this are bigger than the game.”
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.
Clayton Kershaw
Los Angeles Dodgers
Major League Baseball
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