There was an intriguing game on the 2025 Major League Baseball schedule on Friday. When the Los Angeles Dodgers hosted the Toronto Blue Jays at Dodger Stadium in southern California, the starting pitching matchup became very intriguing indeed. That is because the starters both had 3000+ career strikeouts. Blue Jays starting pitcher Max Scherzer of St. Louis, Missouri had 3451 MLB career strikeouts heading into Friday, while Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw of Dallas, Texas had 3010 MLB career strikeouts.
When was the last time pitchers with 3000+ strikeouts faced each other?
On September 6, 2023, Scherzer faced future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander of Manakin, Virginia. At the time, Scherzer was pitching for the Texas Rangers, and Verlander was pitching for the Houston Astros. The Astros came through with a dominant 12-3 victory.
What happened on Friday?
The Dodgers came through with a 5-1 victory. Kershaw had a quality start as he had four strikeouts in six innings of work. In 74 pitches, he had 54 strikes and 20 balls. In the 23 batters Kershaw faced, he gave up seven hits, and one walk, but only gave up one earned run, as the Blue Jays struggled offensively when there were runners on base.
The Dodgers had a two-run home run by Mookie Betts of Nashville, Tennessee off of Scherzer in the bottom of the fifth inning to put the Dodgers up 2-1. Los Angeles then scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning as Brendon Little was completely ineffective in the Blue Jays bullpen.
Where do Kershaw and Scherzer rank in terms of strikeouts all-time?
Scherzer had five strikeouts on Friday and now has 3456 strikeouts in his career. That is 11th on the all-time list. Kershaw has 3014 strikeouts, and is 20th. The MLB active leader in strikeouts is Verlander with 3497. Meanwhile, the all-time leader is Nolan Ryan, who has 5714 strikeouts.
Clayton Kershaw’s statistics in 2025
Kershaw has a record of six wins and two losses with an earned run average of 3.14. During 71 2/3 innings pitched, he has given up 71 hits, 25 earned runs, six home runs and 19 walks, to go along with 46 strikeouts, five quality starts, and a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 1.26.
Leading the National League West
The Dodgers picked up a game on the San Diego Padres, who lost 10-2 to the Boston Red Sox on Friday. The Dodgers lead the Padres by three games in the National League West after improving to a record of 67 wins and 49 losses.
