Clayton Kershaw reaches 3,000 strikeouts in Dodgers' win over White Sox

Japan Times

3 days ago

The Los Angeles Dodgers had a full night Wednesday, watching Clayton Kershaw record his 3,000th career strikeout while Freddie Freeman capped a three-run ninth-inning rally with a game-ending single in a 5-4 victory over the visiting Chicago White Sox.
Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani also drove in runs for the Dodgers in the ninth. Ohtani scored the game-winning run. Reliever Will Klein (1-0) earned his first win for the Dodgers.
Kershaw struck out three batters to finish the night with exactly 3,000, striking out Vinny Capra looking on a slider to end the top of the sixth inning. The milestone strikeout came on Kershaw's last batter of the game and on his season-high 100th pitch. He gave up four runs on nine hits.
"It was such a special night all the way around, it really was," Kershaw said.
"Running out there for the sixth inning and hearing that crowd roar was up there for me in special moments.
"I couldn't have asked for anything more. Give the White Sox credit — they didn't make it easy on me at all.
"So it was a tough night. But what a way to end it with Freddie coming up clutch at the end.
"I told my teammates — winning individual awards are great, but if you don't have anybody to celebrate it with, it doesn't matter."
Will Smith and Andy Pages hit home runs for the Dodgers, who won for the eighth time in their last nine games.
Austin Slater hit a two-run home run for the White Sox, while Sean Burke gave up one run on six hits over six innings.
Los Angeles third baseman Max Muncy left the game just before Kershaw's milestone strikeout in the sixth inning when he injured his left knee. The White Sox's Michael A. Taylor also departed after the same play with a shoulder injury.
With anticipation high for Kershaw to reach his milestone, the White Sox took some air out of the building by taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single from Andrew Benintendi. The Dodgers tied the game in the first on Smith's home run, his 11th of the season.
The Dodgers went up 2-1 in the second when Pages hit his 17th home run.
Chicago grabbed a 4-1 lead against Kershaw in the third when Slater crushed a two-run home run, his third, and Edgar Quero added an RBI single.
Los Angeles tied it 4-4 in the ninth, scoring on a fielder's choice grounder from Ohtani and a sacrifice fly from Mookie Betts. Freeman ended it on a single to right against Steven Wilson, while Grant Taylor (0-1) took the loss after he was charged with three runs in 1⅓ innings.
Kershaw, 37, became just the fourth left-handed pitcher to reach 3,000 strikeouts along with CC Sabathia (3,093), Steve Carlton (4,136) and Randy Johnson (4,875).
Nolan Ryan is the all-time strikeout leader at 5,714.
Kershaw is also the third active pitcher to reach the mark, along with Max Scherzer (3,419) and Justin Verlander (3,417). Scherzer reached 3,000 as a member of the Dodgers in September 2021.
"If you look at the odds of doing it with the same team, the margins are very small to happen like this," Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said before the game. "The Dodgers faithful can really appreciate that they've been on this journey with Clayton for 18 years, so it's pretty cool."