the k is for kershaw countdown continues - top 20 edition!

clayton kershaw made his fifth appearance of the 2025 season sunday afternoon against the cardinals at busch stadium number 3. 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.

this start turned out to be a big one, as kershaw not only notched his first win of the season, he registered seven strikeouts to bring his career total to 2,983 and move into 20th place all-time! here's the updated top 24 all-time strikeout leader tile from baseball reference:

no one in baseball history has ever accumulated as many strikeouts as clayton kershaw and not reached the 3,000 milestone!

in honor of his performance, here are seven cards (not seen on this blog before) from my collection to represent strikeouts number 2,977 through 2,983.

2,977 - 2022 topps steve aoki's baseball party

2,978 - 2019 topps finest

2,979 - 2018 topps big league wins league leaders gold parallel

2,980 - 2019 topps fire en fuego insert

2,981 - 2020 topps fire smoke and mirrors insert

2,982 - 2021 topps chrome ben baller icy

2,983 - 2021 topps gold label

i made sure to use that big league card for strikeout 2,979 as the card features both kershaw and zack greinke. for a brief moment in time (half of an inning), they were tied with each other at 2,979 career strikeouts, but strikeout 2,980 put kershaw in 20th place by himself.

against the cardinals, kershaw filled the role of stopper as the dodgers won the last game of the series after dropping the first two. he pitched five innings and walked no batters, and at one point k'd three consecutive batters. he did give up six hits and one run, but escaped a fifth inning jam featuring a run in and runners on second and third by striking out brendan donovan to end the inning. 

seven strikeouts over five innings was great to see after kershaw's first four starts resulted in fewer than 1 k/ip. it's worth noting that kershaw is one of only five pitchers among the top 20 in career strikeouts who has averaged more than 1 strikeout per inning pitched. his ratio is fourth among them, and the pitchers (in order from highest k/ip to lowest) are: max scherzer, randy johnson, pedro martinez, kershaw, and nolan ryan.

here's a non-kershaw card - it's a 2025 bowman hyeseong kim card

kim tripled in the top of the second to drive in two runs and deliver a somewhat rare (for the dodgers lately) hit with runners in scoring position. it's a small sample size, but kim is hitting over .400 so far as a major leaguer, and his speed has paid dividends on the bases and in the field - the latter evidenced by his great running catch of a masyn winn drive into the left-center field gap.

kershaw is now in 20th place on the all-time leader board, and he will remain there unless he passes john smoltz (or is himself passed - looking at you, chris sale). smoltz has a career strikeout total of 3,084 and so kershaw is now 101 k's behind smoltz, but just 17 away from the 3,000 milestone. for what it's worth, he is also now tied with smoltz on the all-time wins leaderboard with 213.

kershaw should be back on the mound later this week against the giants. know that when he makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!