Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw has accumulated a number of accolades and records in his Major League career, and he added to that on Wednesday night when he passed Don Drysdale for the second-most strikeouts in franchise history.
In a 6-1 win over the Seattle Mariners, Kershaw tossed seven innings of one-run ball, allowing four hits while striking out 11 and walking just one.
Kershaw now has 2,493 strikeouts in his 13 seasons with the Dodgers, which puts him ahead of Drysdale, who had 2,486 in 14 seasons. Next up on the list is Don Sutton, who is the Dodgers all-time strikeouts leader with 2,696.
Kershaw has never been one to celebrate his accomplishments, and that was again the case, as he shifted focus to the Dodgers picking up their MLB-leading 19th win.
“Obviously very cool just to be a Dodger long enough to accomplish something like that is pretty special. Some of the names on that list, it’s pretty cool to be a part of that. Someday I’ll look back on it,” Kershaw said.
“For today, it was just a great start all the way around. Good game from the whole team, really. It’s good to get out of here with another win.”
The 11 strikeouts were a season-high for Kershaw, and he had both offspeed pitches working as six of the punchouts came on his slider and the other five on his curveball.
“It took a few innings to get my slider going,” he said. “After (Kyle) Seager hit that homer I tried to do some different things with it and finish it a little better. It definitely got better as the game went on.
“Curveball was pretty good throughout the whole day, which I was thankful for. I was able to throw strikes with it early and a lot of guys were taking it, so it was kind of a free strike and I was able to bury a few at the end for some strikeouts. All-in-all it was a good day and I feel good about it.”
After missing the first couple of weeks of the season due to a minor back issue, Kershaw has looked as good as ever in 2020 as his velocity is up and his command has improved as well. In four starts, the lefty is 3-1 with a 2.25 ERA and 0.79 WHIP with 29 strikeouts and four walks in 24 innings.
Kershaw pleased to pitch deep into game
Kershaw was also efficient against Seattle and for the second start in a row, he was able to complete seven innings of work, which the rotation as a whole has struggled with this season.
With the team currently in a span of playing 17 straight days, the bullpen has been taxed a bit, especially with Julio Urias lasting just 1.2 innings on Wednesday night.
Because of that, Kershaw was pleased to get through seven innings.
“That’s our job. They threw a lot of innings [Wednesday] night,” he said. “It was good to give those guys a blow down there and just give them two to finish off today. It’s your job as a starter, pick other starters up when they have bad ones and they’ll do the same for you.”
With Kershaw looking to be at his best, the next piece of the puzzle is Walker Buehler getting to the same level, and he will have a chance on Friday night in the series opener against the Colorado Rockies.
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