Kershaw becomes the 20th pitcher in MLB history, and the only pitcher in Dodgers history. to achieve the feat.
He now joins recent Hall of Fame inductee CC Sabathia, Philadelphia Phillies legend Steve Carlton, and The Big Unit, Randy Johnson, as the only left-handed pitchers to ever reach 3,000 career strikeouts.
Kershaw can now stand alongside Justin Verlander (42) and Max Scherzer (40) as the only other active MLB pitchers to hit the mark - all three future first-ballot Hall of Famers.
The 37-year-old southpaw, known for his "Public Enemy No. 1" slider and wicked curveball with a grip that he learned from the Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax himself, has spent his entire 18-year career as a member of the Dodgers organization.
Since making his debut in 2008, Kershaw has gone on to become a three-time Cy Young Award-winning National League MVP and has been elected to the All-Star team 10 times.
In 2011, Kershaw blew the baseball world away after becoming the 37th pitcher in MLB history to win the Triple Crown (wins/ERA/strikeouts), a season that earned him his first of five ERA Titles, which he would go on to win the following three years from 2012-2014 then again in 2017.
During his dominant run in 2015, Kerhsaw not only led the league in complete game shutouts (3) and posted a stellar 2.13 ERA in a league-leading 33 starts, but he also became one of 19 pitchers in history to ever eclipse 300 strikeouts in a single season.
Then, in 2020, despite battling injuries, after 13 long years, Kershaw could finally call himself a champion after the Dodgers took down the Tampa Bay Rays in six games to win the World Series.
Kershaw would also be part of the team that won the World Series in 2024, and while given a ring, the record books won't show it after missing the first half of the season with a shoulder injury and the rest of the season with a toe injury (started seven total games that year).
But the former Dodgers ace and seventh overall pick in the 2006 MLB Draft is still rolling along just fine in his later years as he entered Wednesday night's game with a 3.03 ERA and a 4-0 record, striking out 29 batters and allowing 33 hits in 38.2 innings. Leading up tonight, Kershaw had thrown a career 2.51 ERA in 2,781.1 innings while giving up 2,124 hits and 691 walks to 2,997 strikeouts with a phenomenal 216-94 record.