LOS ANGELES (news agencies) — Clayton Kershaw was 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 6 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.
