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Alden Gonzalez
LOS ANGELES — His begin extended, the whiffs remained elusive, and the Dodger Stadium crowd turned more and more involved that Clayton Kershaw won’t attain a hallowed milestone in entrance of them. Lastly, with two outs in Wednesday’s sixth inning, on the finish of his outing, it occurred — an outside-corner slider to freeze Chicago White Sox third baseman Vinny Capra and make Kershaw the twentieth member of the three,000-strikeout membership.
Kershaw got here off the sector and waved his cap to a sold-out crowd that had risen in appreciation. His teammates then greeted him on the sector, dispersing hugs earlier than a tribute video performed on the Dodger Stadium scoreboard, after which Kershaw spilled out of the dugout to greet the followers as soon as extra.
Kershaw, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ longtime ace, is simply the fourth lefty to succeed in 3,000 strikeouts, becoming a member of Randy Johnson, Steve Carlton and CC Sabathia. He’s one in every of simply 5 to build up that many with one staff, together with Walter Johnson, Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton and John Smoltz. The one different energetic pitchers who reached 3,000 strikeouts are the 2 who’ve typically been lumped with Kershaw among the many best pitchers of this period — Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, the latter of whom reached the milestone as a member of the Dodgers in September 2021.
Kershaw’s first strikeout accounted for the primary out of the third inning — instantly after Austin Slater’s two-run homer gave the White Sox a 3-2 lead. Former Dodger Miguel Vargas fell behind within the rely, 0-2, changing into the ninth batter to get to 2 strikes towards Kershaw, then swung by way of a curveball low and away. The subsequent strikeout, No. 2,999 of his profession, got here on his season-high-tying 92nd pitch of the night time — a curveball that landed effectively in entrance of residence plate and induced a swing and miss of Lenyn Sosa to finish the fifth inning.
Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts didn’t even have a look at Kershaw as he made his means again into the dugout, a transparent signal that he wouldn’t be taken out. The group erupted as Kershaw took the mound for the beginning of the sixth inning. Mike Tauchman grounded out, Michael A. Taylor hit a double, then was caught stealing on a play that prompted Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy to return down arduous on his left knee, forcing him to be helped off the sector.
The temper out of the blue turned somber at Dodger Stadium. Then, 4 pitches later, got here elation.
Kershaw reached 3,000 strikeouts in 2,787⅓ innings, making him the fourth-fastest to succeed in the mark, in accordance with analysis from the Elias Sports activities Bureau. The one ones who obtained there with fewer innings had been Johnson (2,470⅔), Scherzer (2,516) and Pedro Martinez (2,647⅔).