The Los Angeles Dodgers had a full night Wednesday, watching Clayton Kershaw record his 3,000th career strikeout while Freddie Freeman capped a three-run ninth-inning rally with a game-ending single in a 5-4 victory over the visiting Chicago White Sox on Wednesday.
Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani also drove in rund for the Dodgers in the ninth. Ohtani scored the game-winning run, while Will Klein (1-0) earned his first win for the Dodgers.
Kershaw struck out three batters to finish the night with exactly 3,000, setting down Vinny Capra looking on a slider to end the top of the sixth inning. The milestone strikeout came on Kershaw’s last batter of the game and on his season-high 100th pitch. He gave up four runs on nine hits.
Will Smith and Andy Pages hit home runs for the Dodgers, who won for the eighth time in their last nine games.
Austin Slater hit a two-run home run for the White Sox, while Sean Burke gave up one run on six hits over six innings.
Los Angeles third baseman Max Muncy left the game just before Kershaw’s milestone strikeout in the sixth inning when he injured his left knee. The White Sox’s Michael A. Taylor also departed after the play with a shoulder injury.
With anticipation high for Kershaw to reach his milestone, the White Sox took some air out of the building by taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single from Andrew Benintendi. The Dodgers tied the game 1-1 in the first on Smith’s home run, his 11th.
The Dodgers went up 2-1 in the second when Pages hit his 17th home run.
Chicago grabbed a 4-1 lead against Kershaw in the third. Slater crushed a two-run home run, his third, and Edgar Quero added an RBI single.
Los Angeles tied it 4-4 in the ninth, scoring on a fielder’s choice grounder from Shohei Ohtani and a sacrifice fly from Mookie Betts. Freeman ended it on a single to right against Steven Wilson, while Grant Taylor (0-1) took the loss after he was charged with three runs in 1 1/3 innings.
Kershaw, 37, became just the fourth left-handed pitcher to reach the 3,000 milestone along with CC Sabathia (3,093), Steve Carlton (4,136) and Randy Johnson (4,875).
Nolan Ryan is the all-time strikeout leader at 5,714.
Kershaw is also the third active pitcher to reach the mark, along with Max Scherzer (3,419) and Justin Verlander (3,417). Scherzer reached 3,000 as a member of the Dodgers in September of 2021.
Only two other pitchers reached 3,000 with the same team: Bob Gibson (St. Louis Cardinals), Walter Johnson (Washington Nationals).
