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HOUSTON — Last February, at a Michigan basketball game in the Crisler Center, Wolverines running back Blake Corum held a microphone and told the fans, “I promise you we’re going to win a national championship.”

“It was always for us Houston or bust,” he said on Saturday morning at the College Football Playoff media day.

Michigan, one of the most polarizing programs in college football this season because of its involvement in an alleged off-campus sign-stealing scheme, has made it to the sport’s biggest stage in spite of its controversy and because of it. Two separate NCAA investigations and a Big Ten ruling led to coach Jim Harbaugh being suspended for a total of six games during the regular season. That could have derailed the Wolverines, but instead it galvanized them, sparking the “Michigan vs. Everybody” mantra that has further fueled a determination to win the national title after two straight losses in the CFP semifinals.

The question now is if No. 1 Michigan can beat No. 2 Washington on Monday night (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) and close this tumultuous season with the program’s first national title since 1997 before the door to uncertainty opens again. Harbaugh has been quick to deflect questions about his level of interest in the NFL, but also hasn’t publicly reaffirmed his commitment to Michigan. The ongoing NCAA investigations — including one into alleged recruiting violations during the 2020 season — could result in sanctions as serious as further suspensions and the vacation of wins. The Wolverines also stand to lose several key players, including Corum, quarterback J.J. McCarthy and defensive playmaker Mike Sainristil among others.

“We always said since I was here, Michigan has never been ran by one man, not one coach, not one player,” running backs coach Mike Hart said. “Michigan always finds a way to have success. So I think that no matter what happens, what the future holds, we’ll be just fine.”

As straightforward and unblemished as Michigan’s 14-0 record appears, the Wolverines’ story this year was complicated. It’s impossible to untangle the team’s success from the sign-stealing allegations, one of the biggest stories in college sports this fall. Those within the program, though, have echoed the sentiment of their head coach, which is to focus on what they can control.

“Shoot, ever since coach was suspended, we wanted to show everybody regardless of what happens to this team and regardless of what adversity we face we’re going to still follow our mission,” said defensive lineman Kris Jenkins, “we’re going to still be 10 toes down together.”

For many of them, though, it will be the last time they line up together.

This is a senior-laden roster with a two-deep depth chart that features 20 players (including their kicker and longsnapper) who are fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-year seniors, including nine each on offense and defense. McCarthy is 26-1 as the Wolverines’ starting quarterback. Corum rushed for his 25th touchdown in the Rose Bowl win against Alabama, the most in a season in school history. Will Johnson, a sophomore defensive back who will return next season as one of the most talented players on the roster, said there’s a sense of urgency to win the national title because of the seniors who chose to come back “just for this game right here.”

“I think we also got a young guys that they kind of play sparingly throughout the year and they will have a key role next year and I think they will be prepared for it,” he said.

What Johnson said he’s not concerned about right now, is if Harbaugh will return to lead them.

Michigan’s administration has made it clear it wants Harbaugh to return as head coach, and the two sides have been discussing a contract extension for months, but Harbaugh has yet to agree to it. ESPN has reported that the reasons for the impasse include Michigan wanting a hefty buyout for Harbaugh to leave for the NFL. Also, Harbaugh wants some contractual protection in regards to a potential for-cause firing in the wake of the ongoing NCAA case.

Michigan assistant coach Jay Harbaugh, the coach’s son, said he didn’t have any insight as to what his father might be thinking — other than being focused entirely on winning the national title.

“Anyone that knows him knows that’s not how he operates,” Jay Harbaugh said. “He could be doing anything. It could be working with the chickens in the chicken coop or coaching or doing maintenance on his cabin. He’s just totally dialed in on whatever it is. The notion that there would be something else that’s on his mind, it’s like he wouldn’t even entertain it.”

If Harbaugh stays, he could be facing further suspensions. In late December, ESPN reported that Harbaugh faces a Level I violation for allegedly not cooperating with or misleading NCAA investigators about the alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 recruiting dead period. Michigan also faces four Level II violations, which are considered less serious.

Michigan is also in the midst of a second NCAA investigation for the prohibited off-campus scouting and signal-stealing allegedly led by former staff member Connor Stalions, who resigned Nov. 4. Although Michigan has not received a notice of allegations in that case, the Big Ten imposed a three-game suspension for Harbaugh under its sportsmanship policy, which the coach served for the final three regular-season games. Harbaugh could be charged as a repeat violator under head-coach responsibility, also a Level I charge.

The administration has made it clear, though, it wants him to return.

“I am celebrating the great success of the program, the great opportunity that Jim and this team has on Monday night,” Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel told ESPN. “We are working through everything else, including retaining Jim as our coach. We are all aligned on our goals.”

Michigan defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale conceded some parents have asked about the future of the program while he’s on the recruiting trail, but said he’s completely transparent with them about not knowing the future or Harbaugh’s intentions.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” Clinkscale said. “I’m just honest with them. We don’t know. I believe the way our organization is designed that we’ll be fine, whatever the outcome may be. I tell parents all the time, my son is coming to play there. He’s going to be a walk-on. This is a great opportunity for him. But if I wasn’t here tomorrow, I would want my son to be around men at Michigan. You know, the organization, the AD, the president, everybody. Athletically, academically, they do a great job of developing young men and young people. It’s still an opportunity whether Coach is there or not.”

According to ESPN Stats & Information, the last time a school won at least 14 games in a season and changed head coaches the following year was in 1894 to 1895, when Yale won 16 games with William C. Rhodes and then changed to John A. Hartwell.

Harbaugh declined to say if winning his first national title would influence his decision.

“I’ll gladly talk about the future next week,” he said. “And I hope to have one, how about that? A future. I hope to have one, yes.”

Nobody at Michigan could foresee how this season would unfold when Harbaugh was first suspended in August by the school for failing to come to terms on a negotiated resolution stemming from the alleged recruiting violations. Or how the team would fare when he was suspended again for the final three games — a season-defining stretch that included wins against Penn State, Maryland and Ohio State under acting head coach Sherrone Moore.

What they did know, though, was that it wasn’t going to change their goal of winning their first CFP semifinal and reaching the national championship.

“I think that they’re really resilient, and I think when you have leaders — you lose back-to-back CFPs two times in a row in the semis — and they all came back with the same mindset,” said Hart. “I’ve never seen a team just talk about the national championship all the time.

“I’ve always been one of those guys, win one game before the next game,” Hart said, “and these guys at the end of practice would say, ‘We’re winning a national championship.'”

The staff reminded the players about Michigan’s 2007 upset at the hands of Appalachian State as a way of reminding them about not looking past anyone, but also acknowledged that this particular group wasn’t going to shy away from setting its sights on Monday night.

“Maybe with other teams if you heard players saying that, you would say, ‘Man, we need to focus on beating UNLV or Bowling Green or Nebraska, et cetera,'” Jay Harbaugh said. “With these guys it just never felt that way.

“The thing that made it special is that they were able to simultaneously have that as the goal and not let it distract from what was right in front of them. That’s what I think gave us a chance to be here.”

Corum knows that getting here is one thing. Leaving with the national title he promised fans last February is another.

“We haven’t done it yet, so have to stay locked in this week,” he said. “The hay is never in the barn. Make sure we watch as much film we can over the next couple days and make sure we’re prepared for Monday.

“This is everything I dreamed of,” he said, “everything I came back for.”

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Kershaw joins the 3K club! Where does he rank among pitchers with 3,000 strikeouts?

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Kershaw joins the 3K club! Where does he rank among pitchers with 3,000 strikeouts?

The 3,000-strikeout club has grown by one, with Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers whiffing the Chicago White Sox‘s Vinny Capra in the sixth inning Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, becoming the 20th pitcher in baseball history to reach that milestone.

The 3K pitching club doesn’t generate as much hullabaloo as its hitting counterpart, but it is more exclusive: Thirty-three players have reached 3,000 hits.

When you look at the list of pitchers with 3,000 strikeouts, and Kershaw’s place on it, a few things jump out.

• None of them pitched at Ebbets Field, at least not in a regular-season game. I frame it like that to illustrate that this level of whiffery is a fairly recent phenomenon. The Dodgers bolted Brooklyn after the 1957 season, and at that point, Walter Johnson was the only member of the 3,000-strikeout club. A career Washington Senator, he never pitched against the Dodgers. Every other 3K member made his big league debut in 1959 or later. Half of them debuted in 1984 or later. Three of them (Kershaw, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander) are active.

• For now, Kershaw has thrown the fewest career innings of any 3K member, though he’s likely to eventually end up with more frames than Pedro Martinez.

• Kershaw has the highest winning percentage of the 20 (.697) and the best ERA+ (155), though his edges over Martinez (.685 and 154) are razor thin.

• Kershaw tops the list in average game score (61.9) and is tied for second (with Bob Gibson) for quality start percentage (68%), behind only Tom Seaver (70%).

• Kershaw lags behind in bWAR, at least among this group of current, future and should-be Hall of Famers with 77.1, ranking 16th.

So where does Kershaw really rank in the 3K club? I’m glad you asked.

First, what should be obvious from the above bullet points is that the response to the question will vary according to how you choose to answer it. The ranking below reflects not only how I chose to answer the question but how I’d like to see starting pitchers rated in general — even today, in the wildly different context from the days of Walter Johnson.

1. Roger Clemens

FWP: 568.8 | Strikeouts: 4,672 (3rd in MLB history)

Game score W-L: 477-230 (.675)

The top three pitchers on the list, including Rocket, match the modern-era top three for all pitchers, not just the 3K guys. (The string is broken by fourth-place Christy Mathewson.) Before running the numbers, I figured Walter Johnson, with his modern-era record of 417 career wins (the old-fashioned variety), would top the list. But Clemens actually started more games (relief appearances don’t factor in) and had a better game score win percentage.


2. Randy Johnson

FWP: 532.9 | Strikeouts: 4,875 (2nd)

Game score W-L: 421-182 (.698)

Since we’re lopping off pre-1901 performances, the method does Cy Young dirty. Only two pitchers — Young (511 wins) and Walter Johnson got to 400 career wins by the traditional method. By the game score method, the club grows to nine, including a bunch of players many of us actually got to see play. The Big Unit is one of the new 400-game winners, and of the nine, his game score winning percentage is the highest. The only thing keeping Johnson from No. 1 on this list is that he logged 104 fewer career starts than Clemens.


3. Walter Johnson

FWP: 494.7 | Strikeouts: 3,509 (9th)

Game score W-L: 437-229 (.656)

Don’t weep for the Big Train — even this revamping of his century-old performance record and the fixation on strikeouts can’t dim his greatness. That fact we mentioned in the introduction — that every 3K member except Walter Johnson debuted in 1959 or later — tells you a lot about just how much he was a man out of his time. Johnson retired after the 1927 season and surpassed 3,000 strikeouts by whiffing Cleveland’s Stan Coveleski on July 22, 1923. It was nearly 51 years before Gibson became 3K member No. 2 on July 17, 1974.


4. Greg Maddux

FWP: 443.3 | Strikeouts: 3,371 (12th)

Game score W-L: 453-287 (.612)

There is a stark contrast between pitcher No. 4 and pitcher No. 5 on this ranking. The wild thing about Maddux ranking above Nolan Ryan in a group selected for strikeouts is that no one thinks of Maddux as a strikeout pitcher. He never led a league in whiffs and topped 200 just once (204 in 1998). He was just an amazingly good pitcher for a really long time.


5. Nolan Ryan

FWP: 443.1 | Strikeouts: 5,714 (1st)

Game score W-L: 467-306 (.604)

Ryan is without a doubt the greatest strikeout pitcher who ever lived, and it’s really hard to imagine someone surpassing him. This is a guy who struck out his first six batters in 1966, when Lyndon Johnson was in the White House, and his last 46 in 1993, when Bill Clinton was there. Ryan was often criticized during his heyday for his win-loss record, but the game score method clears that right up. Ryan’s revised winning percentage (.604) is markedly higher than his actual percentage (.526).


6. Max Scherzer

FWP: 385.7 | Strikeouts: 3,419 (11th)

Game score W-L: 315-145 (.685)

Here’s another club Mad Max is in: .680 or better game score winning percentage, minimum 100 career starts. He’s one of just eight members, along with Kershaw. The list is topped by Smoky Joe Wood, who dominated the AL during the 1910s before hurting his arm and converting into a full-time outfielder. The full list: Wood, Martinez, Randy Johnson, Lefty Grove, Mathewson, Kershaw, Stephen Strasburg and Scherzer.


7. Justin Verlander

FWP: 385.0 | Strikeouts: 3,471 (10th)

Game score W-L: 349-190 (.647)

Like Scherzer, Verlander is fresh off the injured list. Thus, the two active leaders in our version of FWP have resumed their tight battle for permanent supremacy. Both also resume their quests to become the 10th and 11th pitchers to reach 3,500 strikeouts. Verlander, who hasn’t earned a traditional win in 13 starts, is 4-9 this season by the game score method.


8. Pedro Martinez

FWP: 383.5 | Strikeouts: 3,154 (15th)

Game score W-L: 292-117 (.714)

By so many measures, Martinez is one of the greatest of all time, even if his career volume didn’t reach the same levels as those of the others on the list. His 409 career starts are easily the fewest of the 3K club. But he has the highest game score winning percentage and, likewise, the highest score for FWP per start (.938).


9. Steve Carlton

FWP: 379.8 | Strikeouts: 4,136 (4th)

Game score W-L: 420-289 (.592)

When you think of Lefty, you think of his 1972 season, when he went 27-10 (traditional method) for a Phillies team that went 59-97. What does the game score method think of that season? It hates it. Kidding! No, Carlton, as you’d expect, dominated, going 32-9. So think of it like this: There were 32 times in 1972 that Carlton outpitched his starting counterpart despite the lethargic offense behind him.


10. Tom Seaver

FWP: 371.3 | Strikeouts: 3,640 (6th)

Game score W-L: 391-256 (.604)

Perhaps no other pitcher of his time demonstrated a more lethal combination of dominance and consistency than Seaver. The consistency is his historical differentiator. As mentioned, his career quality start percentage (70%) is tops among this group. Among all pitchers with at least 100 career starts, he ranks fifth. Dead ball era pitchers get a leg up in this stat, so the leader is the fairly anonymous Jeff Tesreau (72%), a standout for John McGraw’s New York Giants during the 1910s. The others ahead of Seaver are a fascinating bunch. One is Babe Ruth, and another is Ernie Shore, who in 1917 relieved Ruth when The Babe was ejected after walking a batter to start a game. Shore replaced him, picked off the batter who walked, then went on to retire all 26 batters he faced. The other ahead of Seaver: Jacob deGrom.


11. Clayton Kershaw

FWP: 370.9 | Strikeouts: 3,000 (20th)

Game score W-L: 301-137 (.687)

And here’s the guest of honor, our reason for doing this ranking exercise. As you can see, Kershaw joined the 300-game-score win club in his last start before Wednesday’s milestone game, becoming the 38th member. In so many measures of dominance, consistency and efficiency, Kershaw ranks as one of the very best pitchers of all time. When you think that he, Verlander and Scherzer are all in the waning years of Hall of Fame careers, you can’t help but wonder who, if anyone, is going to join some of the elite starting pitching statistical clubs in the future.


12. Don Sutton

FWP: 370.6 | Strikeouts: 3,574 (7th)

Game score W-L: 437-319 (.578)

For a post-dead ball pitcher, Sutton was a model of durability. He ranks third in career starts (756) and seventh in innings (5,283⅓). During the first 15 seasons of his career, Sutton started 31 or more games 14 times and threw at least 207 innings for the Dodgers in every season.


13. Ferguson Jenkins

FWP: 353.8 | Strikeouts: 3,192 (14th)

Game score W-L: 363-231 (.611)

Jenkins is in the Hall of Fame, so we can’t exactly say he was overlooked. Still, it does feel like he’s a bit underrated on the historical scale. His FWP score ranks 17th among all pitchers, and the game score method gives him a significant win-loss boost. That .611 percentage you see here is a good bit higher than his actual .557 career winning percentage. He just didn’t play for very many good teams and, in fact, never appeared in the postseason. He’s not the only Hall of Famer associated with the Chicago Cubs who suffered that fate.


14. Gaylord Perry

FWP: 335.6 | Strikeouts: 3,534 (8th)

Game score W-L: 398-292 (.577)

Perry, famous for doing, uh, whatever it takes to win a game, famously hung around past his expiration date to get to 300 wins, and he ended up with 314. Poor Perry: If my game score method had been in effect, he’d have quit two wins shy of 400. Would someone have given him a shot at getting there in 1984, when he was 45? One of history’s great what-if questions.


15. Phil Niekro

FWP: 332.5 | Strikeouts: 3,342 (13th)

Game score W-L: 408-308 (.570)

Knucksie won 318 games, and lost 274, the type of career exemplified by his 1979 season, when he went 21-20. We aren’t likely to see anyone again pair a 20-win season with a 20-loss season. His .537 traditional winning percentage improves with the game score method, but he’s still the low man in the 3K club in that column. Niekro joins Ryan and Sutton on the list of those with 300 game score losses. Sutton, at 319, is the leader. The others: Tommy John, Tom Glavine and Jamie Moyer. Of course, they were all safely over the 300-game-score win threshold as well.


16. CC Sabathia

FWP: 323.2 | Strikeouts: 3,093 (18th)

Game score W-L: 339-221 (.605)

Sabathia will be inducted into the Hall of Fame next month, and his place in this group only underscores how deserving he is of that honor. Sabathia debuted in 2001, and to reach the 250 traditional-win level (he won 251) in this era is an amazing feat. The only pitcher in that club who debuted later is Verlander, stuck at 262 wins after debuting in 2005. Right now, it’s hard to imagine who, if anyone, will be next. Of course, if we just went with game score wins, that would be different.


17. Bob Gibson

FWP: 321.0 | Strikeouts: 3,117 (16th)

Game score W-L: 305-177 (.633)

Gibson, incidentally, also won 251 games — and also gets enough boost from the game score method to climb over 300. His revised percentage is better than his traditional mark of .591. His average game score ranks third in this group, a reflection of his steady dominance but also of the era in which he pitched. Gibson is tied for eighth in quality start percentage among all pitchers. In 1968, when Gibson owned the baseball world with a 1.12 ERA, he went 22-9 by the traditional method. The game score method: 26-8. You’d think it would be even better, but it was, after all, the Year of the Pitcher.


18. Bert Blyleven

FWP: 320.2 | Strikeouts: 3,701 (5th)

Game score W-L: 391-294 (.571)

It took a prolonged campaign by statheads to raise awareness about Blyleven’s greatness and aid his eventual Cooperstown induction. He finished with 287 traditional wins, short of the historical benchmark. Here he would fall short of the 400-win benchmark, but, nevertheless, he is tied with John and Seaver for 11th on the game score wins list. His actual winning percentage was .534.


19. Curt Schilling

FWP: 307.1 | Strikeouts: 3,116 (17th)

Game score W-L: 281-155 (.644)

There are 31 pitchers who have broken the 300 FWP level, and it’s hard for me to imagine how anyone in that group could be left out of Cooperstown. You can sort this out for yourself in terms of baseball and not baseball reasons for this, but the group not there is Clemens, Schilling, John and Andy Pettitte, plus the greats (Kershaw, Verlander, Scherzer) who are still active.


20. John Smoltz

FWP: 273.8 | Strikeouts: 3,084 (19th)

Game score W-L: 290-191 (.603)

Smoltz won 213 games the traditional way, and he falls just short of 300 by the revised method. But all of this is about starting pitching, and with Smoltz, that overlooks a lot. After missing the 2000 season because of injury, he returned as a reliever, and for four seasons he was one of the best, logging 154 saves during that time. He’s the only member of the 200-win, 100-save club.

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Dodgers’ Muncy (knee) helped off, set for MRI

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Dodgers' Muncy (knee) helped off, set for MRI

LOS ANGELES — Clayton Kershaw‘s 3,000th career strikeout was preceded by a scary, dispiriting moment, when Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy injured his left knee and had to be helped off the field Wednesday night.

Muncy is set to undergo an MRI on Thursday, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said initial tests have them feeling “optimistic” and that the “hope” is Muncy only sustained a sprain.

With one out in the sixth inning, Muncy jumped to catch a throw from Dodgers catcher Will Smith, then tagged out Chicago White Sox center fielder Michael A. Taylor on an attempted steal and immediately clutched his left knee, prompting a visit from Roberts and head trainer Thomas Albert.

Muncy wrapped his left arm around Albert and walked toward the third-base dugout, replaced by Enrique Hernandez. His injury, caused by Taylor’s helmet slamming into the side of his left knee on a headfirst slide, was so gruesome that the team’s broadcast opted not to show a replay.

Taylor also exited the game with what initially was diagnosed as a left trap contusion.

The Dodgers went on to win 5-4 on Freddie Freeman‘s walk-off single that scored Shohei Ohtani.

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Kershaw becomes MLB’s 4th lefty with 3,000 K’s

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Kershaw becomes MLB's 4th lefty with 3,000 K's

LOS ANGELES — His start prolonged, the whiffs remained elusive, and the Dodger Stadium crowd became increasingly concerned that Clayton Kershaw might not reach a hallowed milestone in front of them Wednesday. Finally, with two outs in the sixth inning, on his 100th pitch of the night, it happened — an outside-corner slider to freeze Chicago White Sox third baseman Vinny Capra and make Kershaw the 20th member of the 3,000-strikeout club.

Kershaw came off the mound and waved his cap to a sold-out crowd that had risen in appreciation. His teammates then greeted him on the field, dispersing hugs before a tribute video played on the scoreboard, after which Kershaw spilled out of the dugout to greet the fans once more.

Kershaw, the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ longtime ace, is just the fourth lefty to reach 3,000 strikeouts, joining Randy Johnson, Steve Carlton and CC Sabathia. He is one of just five pitchers to accumulate that many with one team, along with Walter Johnson, Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton and John Smoltz. The only other active pitchers who reached 3,000 strikeouts are the two who have often been lumped with Kershaw among the greatest pitchers of this era: Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, the latter of whom reached the milestone as a member of the Dodgers in September 2021.

Kershaw’s first strikeout accounted for the first out of the third inning — immediately after Austin Slater’s two-run homer gave the White Sox a 3-2 lead. Former Dodger Miguel Vargas fell behind in the count 0-2, becoming the ninth batter to get to two strikes against Kershaw, then swung through a curveball low and away. The next strikeout, No. 2,999 of his career, came on his season-high-tying 92nd pitch of the night, a curveball that landed well in front of home plate and induced a swing-and-miss from Lenyn Sosa to end the fifth inning.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts did not even look at Kershaw as he made his way back into the dugout, a clear sign that Kershaw would not be taken out. The crowd erupted as Kershaw took the mound for the start of the sixth inning. Mike Tauchman grounded out and Michael A. Taylor hit a double, then was caught stealing on a play that prompted Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy to come down hard on his left knee, forcing him to be helped off the field.

The mood suddenly turned somber at Dodger Stadium. Then, four pitches later, came elation.

Kershaw reached 3,000 strikeouts in 2,787⅓ innings, making him the fourth-fastest player to reach the mark, according to research from the Elias Sports Bureau. The only ones who got there with fewer innings were Johnson (2,470⅔), Scherzer (2,516) and Pedro Martinez (2,647⅔).

The Dodgers came back to win 5-4, capping their rally with three runs in the bottom of the ninth.

Before the game, Roberts called the 3,000-strikeout milestone “the last box” of a Hall of Fame career — one whose spot in Cooperstown had already been cemented by three Cy Young Awards, 10 All-Star Games, an MVP, five ERA titles and more than 200 wins.

Kershaw’s 2.51 ERA is the lowest in the Live Ball era (since 1920) among those with at least 1,500 innings, even though Kershaw has nearly doubled that. He was a force early, averaging 200 innings and 218 strikeouts per season from 2010 to 2019. And he was a wonder late, finding ways to continually keep opposing lineups in check with his body aching and his fastball down into the high 80s.

Kershaw went on the injured list at least once every year from 2016 to 2024. A foot injury made him a spectator last October, when the Dodgers claimed their second championship in five years. The following month, Kershaw underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee and a ruptured plantar plate in his left big toe, then re-signed with the Dodgers and joined the rotation in mid-May. He allowed five runs in four innings in his debut but went 4-0 with a 2.08 ERA in his next seven starts, stabilizing a shorthanded rotation that remains without Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki and Tony Gonsolin.

Since the start of 2021, Kershaw has somehow managed to put up the sixth-lowest ERA among those with at least 400 innings.

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