Dodgers: Clayton Kershaw Passes Don Sutton For Franchise Strikeout Record
It was a packed house on Saturday night against the Tigers. Dodgers fans always fill up the stadium on weekends, but this was an extra special game. There wasn’t a person there that didn’t know that Clayton Kershaw was pitching towards history.
Kershaw entered the game with 2693 career strikeouts. That was just 3 short of Don Sutton’s franchise record. The only difference was that Sutton did that in parts of 16 seasons with the Dodgers. That came from 1966-1980 and then again in 1988. He also needed almost 200 games more than Kersh.
But pitching in his 15th season and 383rd game, Kershaw passed Sutton. With a strikeout of Spencer Torkelson in the 4th inning, Kersh reached that legendary mark in his illustrious career.
Up next for Kershaw is the all-time strikeout list for Major League Baseball. The Dodgers southpaw currently ranks 26th on the all-time list and won’t get close to Nolan Ryan’s 5714 punchouts. But if he can rack up another 150-ish, he has a chance to get into the low 20s on that list.
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The other active players ahead of him right now are Zack Greinke, Justin Verlander, and Max Scherzer. The Dodgers will no doubt hold a special celebration for him at some point in the near future to celebrate the massive accomplishment.
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The Dodgers need to build statues of Sutton and Kershaw along with the new Koufax statue. They are better pitchers than Koufax.
Readers, please disregard the uneducated comment above.
Even though I don’t agree with Mr. Halburn’s comment, I think that it takes an old fan (like me) to appreciate and understand how good Koufax was. Every time he took the mound, perfection was anticipated. The game was different back then but the competition was greater. Depending upon which part of Sandy’s career, there were only eight or ten teams in each league. Every team with exception of the new teams, had star power at every position. The minor leagues were deep back then and by the time a player made it to the major leagues, whether it be a position player or pitcher, he had honed his skills and was very good.