It wasn’t so much the culmination of a career as it was another signpost pointing the way to the Hall of Fame.
It certainly wasn’t the last pitch Clayton Kershaw will throw for the Dodgers, but it will likely be among the most memorable.
Advertisement
Because when Chicago White Sox third baseman Vinny Capra took a 1-and-2 slider for a strike to end the sixth inning Wednesday night, Kershaw became just the 20th pitcher in major league history to record 3,000 strikeouts.
More people have flown to the moon than have struck out 3,000 major league hitters. And for Kershaw, who has been chasing history since he threw his first big-league pitch as a skinny 20-year-old, entering such an elite club will be a big piece of his legacy.
Read more: Plaschke: There are 3,000 reasons Clayton Kershaw is the greatest pitcher in Dodger history
Only now he has the wisdom and the grace to realize it was never about him in the first place.
Advertisement
“It’s an incredible list. I’m super, super grateful to be a part of it,” Kershaw said. “But if you don’t have anybody to celebrate with, it just doesn’t matter.”
Kershaw would know since he’s one of the most decorated players in history. Twice a 20-game winner, a five-time ERA champion and two-time world champion, he’s won three Cy Young Awards, was a league MVP and is a 10-time All-Star.
“The individual stuff,” he repeated, “is only as important as the people around you.”
So while Kershaw stood out when he reached the 3K milestone on the 100th and final pitch he threw in the Dodgers’ 5-4 win, he refused to stand apart, pausing on his way off the field to point at his family sitting in their usual seats in the front row of the loge section. He then accepted hugs from teammates Mookie Betts and Kiké Hernández.
But he saved his warmest embrace for manager Dave Roberts, who bounded up the dugout steps to greet him.
Advertisement
“We’ve been through a lot together,” said Roberts, who has guided Kershaw through doubts and disappointments, through high points and lows in their 10 years together.
“I’m one of the few people in uniform that has been through them,” Roberts said. “That was kind of what the embrace was.”
Kershaw, 37, is just the fourth left-hander to reach 3,000 strikeouts but more important, he said, is the fact he’s just the second in a century, after Bob Gibson, to do it with the same team. No pitcher, in fact, has spent more years in a Dodger uniform than…