Kershaw adds his name to the record books

Clayton Kershaw finished off an incredible 2013 season with six scoreless innings.

The Elias Sports Bureau tells us that this is Kershaw’s seventh start of six or more innings this season with no runs allowed and at least eight strikeouts, tying a personal best for a single season in his career (he also had seven starts of this type in 2011). Four other pitchers have accomplished this in a single season in the past 30 years: Tim Lincecum in 2009 (7), Pedro Martinez in 2000 (8) and 2002 (7), Randy Johnson in 2001 (7), and Dwight Gooden in 1985 (8).

Friday’s start lowered Kershaw’s ERA to 1.83 for the season.

The last left-handed starter to post a sub-2.00 ERA was John Tudor of the St. Louis Cardinals back in 1985. In the divisional era (since 1969), there are now six lefties to break that barrier, and three of the previous five ended up taking home Cy Young honors. The exceptions were Tudor, who had the best season of his career during Gooden’s sensational sophomore season and Wilbur Wood, who was beaten out for the award by another lefty with a sub-2.00 ERA in the 1971 season: Vida Blue.

Lefties have a harder time posting consistently low ERAs compared with righties. More information on that can be found here.

Kershaw also becomes just the third pitcher in National League history to win three straight ERA titles. The others are Greg Maddux, 1993-95, and the Los Angeles Dodgers' own Sandy Koufax, who did it five straight seasons from 1962 to 1966.