Clayton Kershaw should reach 3.000 strikeouts tonight in the Dodgers' game against the White Sox. That's provided that he lasts more than two or three innings, but he's been doing pretty well since his return off the injured list, so chances are good.
Kershaw will become the first Dodgers pitcher -- who is known as a Dodger pitcher -- to achieve the milestone while a Dodger. There have been other pitchers who either started with the Dodgers and reached the milestone with another team or pitched briefly with the Dodgers and reached the milestone but are not commonly associated with the team.
Don Sutton, Pedro Martinez and Greg Maddux all pitched for the Dodgers but struck out their 3,000th batter with someone else.
In one case, a pitcher hit the 3,000 milestone while with the Dodgers, but is more well-known as a National or a Tiger or a Diamondback or even a Met.
In fact, Max Scherzer is the most recent pitcher to reach 3,000 strikeouts. It happened on Sept. 21, 2021 against the Padres (FYI: A Dodger batter has never been a 3,000 strikeout victim).
Scherzer was the 19th pitcher in MLB history to strike out 3,000 batters and Kershaw will be the 20th. It's wild that Kershaw is at this moment. It just doesn't seem like enough time has passed and in general I'm used to seeing pitchers from other teams achieve the milestone.
It also doesn't seem like as big a deal as it was when I was a teenager. Between 1978 and 1986, eight pitchers eclipsed 3,000 strikeouts and it was momentous every single time. Those eight are Gaylord Perry (1978), Nolan Ryan (1980), Tom Seaver (1981), Steve Carlton (1981 -- Seaver and Carlton's Ks were 11 days apart!), Fergie Jenkins (1982), Don Sutton (1983), Phil Niekro (1984) and Bert Blyleven (1986).
There was a huge break in 3,000 pitchers and then another run a decade-plus later with Roger Clemens (1998), Randy Johnson (2000), Greg Maddux (2005), Curt Schilling (2006), Pedro Martinez (2007) and John Smoltz (2008).
We're kind of in a little run again now with CC Sabathia (2019), Justin Verlander (2019), Scherzer (2021) and now Kershaw (2025).
Three thousand strikeouts is a rather recent phenomenon, most happening in the last 50 years. In fact all but one has happened in my lifetime and all but two happened when I was aware of such a thing.
Walter Johnson's 3,000th strikeout happened more than 100 years ago, in 2023! When Kershaw reaches the number it will have officially been 100 years of pitchers reaching 3,000 Ks.
Bob Gibson's 3,000th strikeout came in July 1974. That was my first year of owning baseball cards, but I did not know who Bob Gibson was or even what a 3,000th strikeout was.
The first time I was aware of someone achieving 3,000 strikeouts was when Gaylord Perry did it for the Padres against the Braves at the end of the 1978 season. It seemed epic.
I have written more about 3,000 hits than 3,000 strikeouts on this blog, In fact I don't think I've hardly ever mentioned the achievement here. I don't know why that is. But I did feature two 3,000-strikeout pitchers in my first two blog posts ever.
Weird.
I don't have anything else really to say about Kershaw's achievement. I've done plenty of card retrospectives on him in the past. His career has lasted the entire length of this blog -- much like Scherzer and Verlander (does that mean when they all retire, I retire?)
So instead of being unoriginal and repeating myself (I'll let social media do that with their usual tired digs on Kershaw), here's a list of all the 3,000 strikeout pitchers and how many cards I have for each player, according to TCDB:
1. Clayton Kershaw - 1,274
2. Nolan Ryan - 191
3. Don Sutton - 167
4. Tom Seaver - 143
5. Steve Carlton - 121
6. Greg Maddux - 100
7. Bert Blyleven - 91
8. Pedro Martinez - 89
9. Roger Clemens - 88
10. Justin Verlander - 87
11. Phil Niekro - 86
12. Max Scherzer - 83
13. Fergie Jenkins - 80
14. Randy Johnson - 75
15. Bob Gibson - 68
16. Gaylord Perry - 61
17. CC Sabathia - 59
18. John Smoltz - 53
19. Curt Schilling - 33
20. Walter Johnson - 23
Congrats to my favorite pitcher since 2008. I picked good.
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