Clayton Kershawwas laboring in pursuit of his 3,000th strikeout. His pitch count soaring, he was down to the last batter he would face, needing one more swing and miss to become the 20th pitcher to reach the milestone.
“It’s a little bit harder when you’re actually trying to strike people out,” he said, smiling. “I never really had to do that before.”
Kershaw accomplished the feat when Vinny Capra of the Chicago White Sox took a slider for a called third strike for the final out of the sixth inning on Wednesday night.
“I made it interesting. Made it take too long,” Kershaw said. “Honestly, I didn’t pitch that great tonight. The slider was so bad.”
In his 18th season in Los Angeles, Kershaw joined Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators and Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals as the only pitchers with 3,000 or more strikeouts all for one team.
Freddie Freeman capped a three-run ninth by singling in Shohei Ohtani,giving the Dodgers a 5-4 win. Kershaw didn’t get a decision.
The sellout crowd of 53,536 was on its feet roaring as the 37-year-old left-hander walked off the mound to end the sixth. Kershaw paused and doffed his cap, with teammates briefly holding off hugging him to allow him to soak in the cheers.
Kershaw waved to his wife Ellen and four children in the stands and then patted his chest and mouthed, “Thank you.”
“I feel bad for Ellen. I know she was nervous,” he said. “I made her last six innings out there just stressed out that I wasn’t going to get it and have to go to Milwaukee to do it.”
Kershaw shared a clubhouse toast with his teammates, coaches, training staff and front office executives.
“Just super thankful for tonight, super thankful for my teammates,” he said. “I told my teammates individual awards are great, but if you don’t have anybody to celebrate with it doesn’t matter.”
The game was delayed for nearly six minutes between pitches, a gap that included a tribute video.
Kershaw joined Justin Verlander of San Francisco (3,468) and Max Scherzer of Toronto (3,412) as the only active pitchers with that many. Kershaw is just the fourth left-hander in the club.
“It’s an incredible list,” he said. “It’s special to finally be in that group.”
Capra, hitting ninth, was retired on four pitches, with plate umpire Jim Wolf calling the third strike on a slider, Kershaw’s season-high 100th pitch of the night. Wolf is the brother of retired pitcher Randy Wolf, once a teammate of Kershaw’s.
“I wanted it to come easy,” Kershaw said. “I would much rather have got it done in the first.”
Manager Dave Roberts had said before the game that he would manage the three-time Cy Young Award winner differently with the milestone within reach. That was apparent when Kershaw jogged out for the sixth to an ovation, having already tossed a season-high 92 pitches with just two strikeouts. He came into the game needing three to make history.
“I was going to give him every opportunity to do it at home,” Roberts said. “You could see the emotion he had trying to get that third strike. It just happened the way it was supposed to happen.”
Kershaw retired Lenyn Sosa on three pitches for No. 2,999 in the fifth. Sosa fouled off Kershaw’s first two pitches before ending the inning by striking out on a 72 mph curveball.
In the third, Miguel Vargas took called strikes on his first two pitches before he swung and missed on another 72 mph curveball from his former Dodgers teammate.
Chicago swung aggressively against Kershaw, who gave up a two-run homer to Austin Slater and two more runs as the White Sox led 4-2 after six innings.
“You could just feel it. They wanted it for me so bad,” he said of the crowd. “You could feel the tension. They were trying to will me to do it.”
Kershaw made history one batter after Dodgers third basemanMax Muncy was injuredin tagging out Michael A. Taylor on a steal attempt. Muncy had to be helped off the field, barely able to put any weight on his left leg.
Kershaw has provided much-needed stability for the Dodgers’ pitching staff, which has been decimated by injuries.
“It’s just again a reminder for me, for anyone, to never bet against that guy,” Roberts said before the game. “It doesn’t matter – health, stuff – he’s going to will himself to doing whatever the team needs.”
Kershaw allowed five runs over four innings in his first start after returning from knee and foot surgeries last offseason. Since then, he has held opposing batters to a .222 average.
“The first three months of the season, we’ve needed some length from the starter,” Roberts said. “Once he kind of got his footing after the first few, he’s done everything and more that we’ve needed. That doesn’t go unnoticed.”
In his prime from 2010-15, Kershaw led the National League in ERA five times, in strikeouts three times and wins twice.
Kershaw had one of the best seasons ever in 2014, when he finished with a 21-3 record, 1.77 ERA and 233 strikeouts to win both the Cy Young and Most Valuable Player in the National League.
Age and less dominant stuff has changed the way Kershaw does his job. He knows his consistency isn’t the same but with the depth of the team’s staff, he doesn’t need to be perfect every outing.
Kershaw no longer overpowers hitters the way he did during the height of his career, but he remains stubbornly determined and possesses a craftiness honed over two decades as well as a slider that still can fool.
“I’ve seen him grow more than any player,” Roberts said. “Hasn’t lost the compete, but I think that the world is not as black and white as he used to see it. I think that his edges are softer, I think that fatherhood, Father Time, does that to a person.”