Dodger Stadium will be the host for the epic showdown Friday night. Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer, two of the most decorated pitchers of their generation, are set to face each other Friday night as the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays square off.
Both men are members of the exclusive 3,000-strikeout club and future Hall of Famers, making this matchup one of the rarest in modern baseball.
The first time they crossed paths was in 2008 when both were rookies, long before their careers reached historic levels. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this is the only instance in MLB history where two pitchers started against each other as rookies and later surpassed 3,000 career strikeouts.
This upcoming game marks just the fifth time they have started against one another. Past meetings have been split, with each pitcher getting the upper hand in different years. Their most recent duel came in 2021, with Kershaw tossing six scoreless innings to edge out Scherzer.
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Matchups like this are rare. Since the 1980s, only a handful of games have featured two pitchers who had already reached the 3,000-strikeout milestone. The last such meeting was Scherzer against Justin Verlander in 2023.
Career numbers show just how close they are statistically. Scherzer leads in starts, innings, wins, and total strikeouts, while Kershaw holds the advantage in ERA, ERA+, and WHIP. Both have three Cy Young Awards, no-hitters, and two World Series rings.
Friday night’s game will not decide who had the better career, but it will be another chapter in one of baseball’s greatest pitcher rivalries.
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