the k is for kershaw kountdown continues - rocky mountain high edition!

clayton kershaw made his eighth appearance of the 2025 season thursday afternoon against the rockies at coors field, so i am pleased to be able to post another edition of the k is for kershaw kountdown as we track his progress to the 3,000 strikeout milestone.

kershaw continues to post solid outings after a couple of shakier starts to begin his season. agains the rockies, he went six innings and gave up just two hits and one walk. one of those hits was a solo home run, but that was the only run he allowed. as for strikeouts, kershaw k'd five batters, and those 5 k's he recorded bring his season strikeout total to 29, and his career total to 2,997.

in honor of his performance, here are five cards (not seen on this blog before) from my collection to represent strikeouts number 2,993 through 2,997.

2,993 - 2017 topps rainbow foil parallel

2,994 - 2021 topps 1986 35th anniversary all-star insert blue parallel

2,995 - 2022 topps update rainbow gold parallel

2,996 - 2023 topps chrome platinum anniversary prism refractor parallel

2,997 - 2024 topps 1989 35th anniversary all-star insert

i gave serious consideration to heading out to colorado for this game. i think if kershaw had been within five strikeouts of 3,000 going in, i would have done it.

kershaw won his fourth decision in a row, as the dodgers beat the rockies 3-1. he is now 4-0 on the season, and he lowered his era to 3.03 on the season.as well. the outing was better than usual for kershaw at coors field, although he did throw a shutout there once. overall, his colorado era is well over 4 in a not so small sample size (28 games pitched). still, the rockies are one of the six teams that passed on kershaw (as well as max scherzer and tim lincecum) in the 2006 draft, and i am sure they would have been ok with how he turned out had they known at the time.

here is a non-kershaw card - it's a 2022 topps 582 montgomery (set 2) mookie betts card

betts had two hits - an rbi single and a double - and scored the dodgers' second run of the game. i am hopeful that he gets on a streak over the next couple of weeks as he hasn't been quite the mookie we are used to this year after starting the season out with a pretty serious illness.

kershaw is still in 20th place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there unless he passes john smoltz (or is himself passed). smoltz has a career strikeout total of 3,084 and so kershaw is now 87 k's behind smoltz, but just 3 away from the 3,000 milestone. for what it's worth, he now has 216 career wins, which puts him in a tie for 87th place overall with curt schilling, wilbur cooper, and old friends max scherzer and charlie hough.

kershaw should be back on the mound next week against the white sox at dodger stadium. the ravine will be packed, no doubt, but i won't be there. i don't think it's a stretch to say that he will get to 3k during that start as the white sox batters strike out about 27% of the time, and only six teams have more strikeouts as hitters than the southsiders. regardless, know that when he makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!