The slider was scorching. The hitter was frozen. The strikeout was roaring.
With an 85-mph pitch on the black within the sixth inning in opposition to the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday at a rollicking Dodger Stadium, Clayton Kershaw struck out Vinny Capra seeking to change into the twentieth participant in baseball historical past to report 3,000 strikeouts.
As spectacular because the pitch itself was the cementing of a reality that has taken practically twenty years to change into evident.
Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher in Dodgers historical past.
Clayton Kershaw information his 3,000th profession strikeout because the Dodgers tackle the Chicago White Sox at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Occasions)
Better than even the good Sandy Koufax.
Gasp. Scream. Please.
This opinion appeared right here three years in the past and was swarmed with a barrage of emphatic and largely emotional arguments for Koufax.
How dare you diss our Sandy! Koufax gained extra championships! Koufax by no means choked within the postseason! Koufax was extra dominant!
All true, Koufax being an incredible human being worthy of each syllable of reward. However as Wednesday so clearly proved in entrance of a history-thirsty crowd at Chavez Ravine, Kershaw has completed one thing that any protection of Koufax can not equal.
He’s endured. He’s taken the ball way over Koufax whereas outlasting him in nearly each impression pitching class.
The Dodgers’ 5-4 victory Wednesday was the proper illustration of the grinding that has lifted Kershaw to the Dodger heavens. He didn’t have his finest stuff, he was battered by one in all baseball’s worst groups for 4 runs on 9 hits, however he fought via six innings to dramatically report his third strikeout and finish his quest for 3,000 on his closing hitter along with his a hundredth pitch.
“I made it interesting, for sure,” Kershaw mentioned afterward. “I made it take too long.”
When he took the mound initially of the sixth, only one strikeout shy of three,000, the gang erupted in deafening screams beforehand solely matched by a World Sequence win. When he breathtakingly struck out Capra — this was his final hitter regardless — he stalked off the mound and sighed and supplied the thunderous crowd a sweaty wave.
“It’s a little bit harder when you’re actually trying to strike people out,” mentioned Kershaw with a chuckle. “Running back out there in the sixth and hearing that crowd roar was up there for me, special moments… It was an amazing night.”
A younger Dodgers fan holds up an indication that reads “3,000” to have a good time Clayton Kershaw’s strikeout milestone.
(Luke Johnson/Los Angeles Occasions)
In all, it was pure Kershaw, and it has been unmatched even by his legendary predecessor.
Koufax was a meteor, streaking throughout the sky for the best 5 seasons of any pitcher in baseball historical past.
Kershaw, in the meantime, has change into his personal planet, looming above for 18 years with a everlasting glow that’s unmatched in Dodgers lore.
Koufax was an incredible flash. Kershaw has been an everlasting flame.
Koufax was Shaq. Kershaw is Kobe.
When this was beforehand written, supervisor Dave Roberts waffled on the query of whether or not Kershaw was the best Dodger pitcher ever.
This time, not a lot.
“Obviously, Sandy is Sandy,” he mentioned Wednesday. “You’re talking about 18 years, though, and the career of the body of work. It’s hard to not say Clayton, you know, is the greatest Dodger of all time.”
When one talks concerning the GOAT of varied sports activities, certainly, a key component is at all times longevity. Tom Brady performed 23 seasons, LeBron James has performed 22 seasons and Babe Ruth performed 22 seasons.
One can not ignore the truth that Kershaw, in his 18th season, has performed six extra seasons than Koufax whereas pitching 463 extra regular-season innings. Along with his 3,000 strikeouts he has additionally fanned 604 extra batters than Koufax, the equal of twenty-two extra video games composed solely of strikeouts, an unreal edge.
Within the nice Koufax debate, Kershaw is clearly being punished for his postseason struggles, and certainly his 4.49 postseason ERA doesn’t examine to Koufax’s 0.95 ERA.
However take a look at the pattern dimension. Kershaw has pitched in 39 postseason video games whereas Koufax appeared in simply eight. Kershaw has had 13 postseason begins which have lasted previous the sixth inning whereas Koufax had 5.
Kershaw has pitched in a number of playoff rounds in a number of seasons, whereas Koufax by no means pitched in multiple playoff spherical per season, vastly growing Kershaw’s alternative for failure.
Kershaw has certainly stunk up the joint in among the most devastating postseason losses in Dodger historical past. However he has taken the mound for practically 5 occasions as many large video games as Koufax and, in the long run, he has only one fewer World Sequence championship.
“I’ve been through it, a lot, ups and downs here, more downs that I care to admit,” mentioned Kershaw. “The fans … it was overwhelming to feel that.”
In the long run, the strongest argument for Koufax supporters is the seemingly apparent reply to a query. If you happen to needed to win one recreation, would you begin Koufax or Kershaw?
In fact you’d pitch Koufax … in case your parameters had been restricted to 5 years. However when you needed to select a starter and also you needed to do it inside a two-decade window, you’d take Kershaw.
Then there are these hardly ever recited stats that additional the argument for Kershaw over Koufax: Kershaw has a greater profession ERA, 2.51 to 2.76. Kershaw has a greater successful proportion, .697 to .655. And regardless of enjoying in an period the place particular person pitching wins are vastly cheapened, Kershaw has 51 extra wins than Koufax.
How uncommon is 3,000 strikeouts? Extra pitchers have gained 300 video games. Solely three different pitchers have completed so left-handed. Solely two pitchers within the final 100 years have completed it with one group.
Now for the intangibles. If that is certainly the golden age of Dodger baseball — as Andrew Friedman so deftly described it — then the guardian of the period has been Kershaw.
The clubhouse tradition is borne of his always current professionalism. The work ethic begins with him. The accountability is a mirrored image of him. For 18 years, via damage and embarrassment in addition to fame and fortune, he has by no means complained, by no means blamed, by no means pointed fingers, by no means introduced distraction.
And he at all times exhibits up for work. Each day. Each recreation. Each season. Clayton Kershaw has at all times been there, which is why he might be there without end on a statue that may absolutely be erected within the center-field plaza subsequent to the bronze figures of Jackie Robinson and, sure, after all, Sandy Koufax.
It’s unlikely the Dodgers would ever script the phrases, “The greatest Dodger pitcher” on the bottom of his statue. They’re understandably delicate to Koufax and his legacy and significance to a legion of longtime followers.
However they know, simply as these followers fortunate sufficient to be at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday realize it.
They weren’t simply watching greatness. They had been watching The Best.
