Clayton Kershaw was sharp over seven innings Friday night to earn his first career win against the New York Yankees in the series opener at Dodger Stadium. The Los Angeles Dodgers provided Kershaw with an early lead en route to an 8-4 victory.
The performance gave Kershaw a win against every opponent he’s faced during the regular season in his career — 27 out of 29 possibilities. Kershaw is yet to start against the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox.
Though, the three-time Cy Young Award winner did start against the Red Sox in the 2018 World Series. Kershaw could potentially earn wins against the Orioles and Red Sox this season as the Dodgers will play them July 17-19 and August 25-27, respectively, as part of MLB’s new balanced schedule.
“It’s hard to put what he’s done over the course of his career in perspective. It really is,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
“Him getting a win against every team that he’s faced, that’s pretty telling as far as consistency of performance and longevity. I think all the boxes possible, he’s probably checked them all.”
Kershaw now having a win against every opponent he’s made a start against in his career also coincided with making MLB history. Kershaw earning at least one win against 27 different opponents with a single team is the most among any pitcher all-time.
While the 35-year-old achieved a milestone against the Yankees, his focus was on simply correcting command issues that had plagued him the past few weeks.
“Feels good to pitch good. Definitely better than the last few, so that’s good. Able to get deep in the game, which is also something I need to do,” Kershaw said.
“Fastball command, I think was just better. Don’t really know why other than it just was better. So just try to build off that.”
Clayton Kershaw on Dodgers all-time wins list
Kershaw remains in third place on the Dodgers all-time wins lists, behind only Don Sutton (233 victories) and Don Drysdale (209).
Kershaw is closing in on passing Drysdale for second place as he currently has 204 career wins.
Last season, Kershaw passed Sutton for first place on the Dodgers all-time strikeouts list.
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