Kershaw sets all-time strikeout record

In what could be the final regular season start of his career, Clayton Kershaw became the DMBL's all-time leader in strikeouts on Monday night.

Kershaw threw seven shutout innings, limiting Green Lake to 3 hits, while striking out 7 in a 2-0 win at in Hoboken. The victory put the Cutters at 89-70 heading into a season-ending three-game series against Sardine City, which leads the Dimaggio Division by 1 game over Empire City and 3 over Cutters.

Randy Johnson of Newark held the previous career mark with 3,408 strikeouts. Kershaw entered Monday's game with 3,405 and eclipsed Johnson with his 4th strikeout of the night. It came to end the top of the 4th inning when Kershaw K'd former teammate Willy Adames, who was traded to the Gators in the offseason for a 6th round pick after spending his first five seasons with Hoboken (he was originally selected as an ineligible prospect in the 11th round of the 2018 draft).

The next three pitchers on the all-time strikeouts list are all active: Tucson's Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander of Merrill Creek, and free agent Zack Greinke.

Kershaw	3,412
JohnsonR*	3,408
Scherzer	3,261
Verlander	3,170
Greinke	2,926

While Verlander, who turns 42 in February, has qualified for DMBL 2025, his numbers (5.20 ERA, 1.37 WHIP) suggest he might not latch on with a team next year but he is scheduled to start one more time, in the season finale for the Mudskippers. Scherzer, 40, needs one more MLB start to qualify for next year and could very well re-sign with Tucson (3.95 ERA, 1.15 WHIP). He's also scheduled to make one more start this regular season for the King Snakes, trailing Kershaw by just 151 strikeouts (he has 195 on the season).

Backed by homers from Isaac Paredes (39) and Ryan Mountcastle (30), Kershaw also earned the win to improve to 11-12 on the season, and 199-168 for his career. That puts him 8th all-time in wins, trailing Verlander who's the active leader with 205, and second only to Tom Glavine (172) in losses. If this is the end for Kershaw, he finishes within a season's worth of action for the all-time record in two other categories:

• 2nd to Greinke (527) in all-time starts (505)
• 3rd in innings pitched (3,258.7) behind Greinke (3,393.7) and Greg Maddux (3,415.3)

He's also 10th all-time in complete games (45), tied with Sid Fernandez and Adam Wainwright; 11th in shutouts (14), matched by Tim Hudson and Roger Clemens; 18th in ERA (4.17), and, 5th in WHIP (1.24).

Kershaw, who turns 37 in March, is not likely to qualify for DMBL in 2025, which means he'd be 39 when the DMBL 2026 rolls around. A 4th round pick as an ineligible prospect in 2008, Kershaw broke into the DMBL in 2009, finishing with a 3-7 mark in 19 starts. He's spent all 16 seasons with Hoboken.

Kershaw won a career high in 2014 with a 20-7 mark, helping the Cutters reach the finals where they fell short of back-to-back titles. The lefty never won a McDonald Award but put together perhaps the greatest postseason by a pitcher in 2017 when he guided the Cutters to their second DMBL championship, earning MVP honors. He also lost a career-high 5-20 in an overall miserable 2020 campaign that saw Hoboken lose 106 games.