LOS ANGELES (AP) — Clayton Kershaw was laboring in pursuit of his 3,000th strikeout. His pitch count soaring, he was down to the last batter he would face, needing one more swing and miss to become the 20th pitcher to reach the milestone.
“It’s a little bit harder when you’re actually trying to strike people out,” he said, smiling. “I never really had to do that before.”
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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, right, blows a kiss to his family in the stands after recording his 3,000th career strikeout during the sixth inning of a baseball game against Chicago White Sox Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw throws against Chicago White Sox's Vinny Capra during the sixth inning to strike him out for his 3,000th career strikeout Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (22) tips his cap after striking out Chicago White Sox's Vinny Capra during the sixth inning for his 3,000th career strikeout Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, right, is congratulated by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, center, after recording his 3,000th career strikeout during the sixth inning of a baseball game against Chicago White Sox Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (22) tips his cap after recording his 3,000th career strike out by striking out Chicago White Sox's Vinny Capra during the sixth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw in the dugout before a baseball game against Chicago White Sox Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw works against the Colorado Rockies in the first inning of a baseball game Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Kershaw accomplished the feat when Vinny Capra of the Chicago White Sox took a slider for a called third strike for the final out of the sixth inning on Wednesday night.
“I made it interesting. Made it take too long,” Kershaw said. “Honestly, I didn’t pitch that great tonight. The slider was so bad.”
In his 18th season in Los Angeles, Kershaw joined Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators and Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals as the only pitchers with 3,000 or more strikeouts all for one team.
Freddie Freeman capped a three-run ninth by singling in Shohei Ohtani, giving the Dodgers a 5-4 win. Kershaw didn't get a decision.
The sellout crowd of 53,536 was on its feet roaring as the 37-year-old left-hander walked off the mound to end the sixth. Kershaw paused and doffed his cap, with teammates briefly holding off hugging him to allow him to soak in the cheers.
Kershaw waved to his wife Ellen and four children in the stands and then patted his chest and mouthed, “Thank you.”
“I feel bad for Ellen. I know she was nervous,” he said. “I made her last six innings out there just stressed out that I wasn't going to get it and have to go to Milwaukee to do it.”
Kershaw shared a clubhouse toast with his teammates, coaches, training staff and front office executives.
“Just super thankful for tonight, super thankful for my teammates,” he said. “I told my teammates individual awards are great, but if you don’t have anybody to celebrate with it doesn’t matter.”
The game was delayed for nearly 6 minutes between pitches, a gap that included a tribute video.
Kershaw joined Justin Verlander of San Francisco (3,468) and Max Scherzer of Toronto (3,412) as the only active pitchers with that many. Kershaw is just the fourth left-hander in the club.
“It's an incredible list,” he said. “It's special to finally be in that group.”
Capra, hitting ninth, was retired on four pitches, with plate umpire Jim Wolf calling the third strike on a slider, Kershaw’s season-high 100th pitch of the night. Wolf is the brother of retired pitcher Randy Wolf, once a teammate of Kershaw’s.
“I wanted it to come easy,” Kershaw said. “I would much rather have got it done in the first.”
Manager Dave Roberts had said before the game that he would manage the three-time Cy Young Award winner differently with the milestone within reach. That was apparent when Kershaw jogged out for the sixth to an ovation, having already tossed a season-high 92 pitches with just two strikeouts. He came into the game needing three to make history.
“I was going to give him every opportunity to do it at home," Roberts said. “You could see the emotion he had trying to get that third strike. It just happened the way it was supposed to happen.”
Kershaw retired Lenyn Sosa on three pitches for No. 2,999 in the fifth. Sosa fouled off Kershaw's first two pitches before ending the inning by striking out on a 72 mph curveball.
In the third, Miguel Vargas took called strikes on his first two pitches before he swung and missed on another 72 mph curveball from his former Dodgers teammate.
Chicago swung aggressively against Kershaw, who gave up a two-run homer to Austin Slater and two more runs as the White Sox led 4-2 after six innings.
“You could just feel it. They wanted it for me so bad,” he said of the crowd. “You could feel the tension. They were trying to will me to do it.”
Kershaw made history one batter after Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy was injured in tagging out Michael A. Taylor on a steal attempt. Muncy had to be helped off the field, barely able to put any weight on his left leg.
Kershaw has provided much-needed stability for the Dodgers’ pitching staff, which has been decimated by injuries.
“It’s just again a reminder for me, for anyone, to never bet against that guy,” Roberts said before the game. “It doesn’t matter — health, stuff — he’s going to will himself to doing whatever the team needs.”
Kershaw allowed five runs over four innings in his first start after returning from knee and foot surgeries last offseason. Since then, he has held opposing batters to a .222 average.
“The first three months of the season, we’ve needed some length from the starter,” Roberts said. “Once he kind of got his footing after the first few, he’s done everything and more that we’ve needed. That doesn’t go unnoticed.”
In his prime from 2010-15, Kershaw led the National League in ERA five times, in strikeouts three times and wins twice.
Kershaw had one of the best seasons ever in 2014, when he finished with a 21-3 record, 1.77 ERA and 233 strikeouts to win both the Cy Young and Most Valuable Player in the National League.
Age and less dominant stuff has changed the way Kershaw does his job. He knows his consistency isn’t the same but with the depth of the team’s staff, he doesn’t need to be perfect every outing.
Kershaw no longer overpowers hitters the way he did during the height of his career, but he remains stubbornly determined and possesses a craftiness honed over two decades as well as a slider that still can fool.
“I’ve seen him grow more than any player,” Roberts said. “Hasn’t lost the compete, but I think that the world is not as black and white as he used to see it. I think that his edges are softer, I think that fatherhood, Father Time, does that to a person.”
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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, right, blows a kiss to his family in the stands after recording his 3,000th career strikeout during the sixth inning of a baseball game against Chicago White Sox Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw throws against Chicago White Sox's Vinny Capra during the sixth inning to strike him out for his 3,000th career strikeout Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (22) tips his cap after striking out Chicago White Sox's Vinny Capra during the sixth inning for his 3,000th career strikeout Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, right, is congratulated by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, center, after recording his 3,000th career strikeout during the sixth inning of a baseball game against Chicago White Sox Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (22) tips his cap after recording his 3,000th career strike out by striking out Chicago White Sox's Vinny Capra during the sixth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw in the dugout before a baseball game against Chicago White Sox Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw works against the Colorado Rockies in the first inning of a baseball game Thursday, June 26, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty on Friday called on members of the public to send any video or other evidence in the fatal shooting of Renee Good directly to her office, challenging the Trump administration's decision to leave the investigation solely to the FBI.
Moriarty said that although her office has collaborated effectively with the FBI in past cases, she is concerned by the Trump administration's decision to bar state and local agencies from playing any role in the investigation into Wednesday's killing of Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis.
She also said that despite the Trump administration’s insistence that the officer who shot Good has complete legal immunity, that isn’t the case.
“We do have jurisdiction to make this decision with what happened in this case,” she said at a news conference. “It does not matter that it was a federal law enforcement agent.”
Moriarty said her office would post a link for the public to submit footage of the shooting, even though she acknowledged that she wasn't sure what legal outcome submissions might produce.
The prosecutor's announcement came on a third day of Minneapolis protests over Good's killing and a day after federal immigration officers shot and wounded two people in Portland, Oregon.
Good's wife, Becca Good, released a statement to Minnesota Public Radio on Friday saying, “kindness radiated out of her.”
"On Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns," Becca Good said.
“I am now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him, as Renee believed, that there are people building a better world for him,” she wrote. “That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts, and we need to show them a better way.”
The reaction to the Good's shooting was immediate in the city where police killed George Floyd in 2020, with hundreds of protesters converging on the shooting scene and the school district canceling classes for the rest of the week as a precaution.
On Thursday night, hundreds marched in freezing rain down one of Minneapolis’ major thoroughfares, chanting “ICE out now!” and holding signs saying, “Killer ice off our streets." And on Friday, protesters were out again demonstrating outside of a federal facility that is serving as a hub for the immigration crackdown that began Tuesday in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Authorities erected barricades outside the facility Friday.
City workers, meanwhile, removed makeshift barricades made of old Christmas trees and other debris that had been blocking the streets near the scene of Good's shooting. Officials said they would leave up a shrine to the 37-year-old mother of three.
The Portland shootings happened outside a hospital Thursday afternoon. Federal immigration officers shot and wounded a man and woman, identified by the Department of Homeland Security as Venezuela nationals Luis David Nico Moncada and Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras, who were inside a vehicle, and their conditions weren't immediately known. The FBI and the Oregon Department of Justice were investigating.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and the city council called on ICE to end all operations in the city until a full investigation is completed. Hundreds protested Thursday night at a local ICE building. Early Friday, Portland police reported that officers had arrested several protesters after asking the to get out of a street to allow traffic to flow.
Just as it did following Good's shooting, DHS defended the actions of the officers in Portland, saying it occurred after a Venezuelan man with alleged gang ties and who was involved in a recent shooting tried to “weaponize” his vehicle to hit the officers. It wasn't immediately clear if the shootings were captured on video, as Good's was.
The Minneapolis shooting happened on the second day of the immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities, which Homeland Security said is the biggest immigration enforcement operation ever. More than 2,000 officers are taking part and Noem said they have made more than 1,500 arrests.
The government is also shifting immigration officers to Minneapolis from sweeps in Louisiana, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. This represents a pivot, as the Louisiana crackdown that began in December had been expected to last into February.
Good's death — at least the fifth tied to immigration sweeps since Trump took office — has resonated far beyond Minneapolis, as protests happening in other places, including Texas, California, Detroit and Missouri.
In Washington, D.C., on Thursday, a woman held a sign that said, “Stop Trump’s Gestapo,” as hundreds of people marched to the White House. Protesters in Pflugerville, Texas, north of Austin, banged on the walls of an ICE facility. And a man in Los Angeles burned an American flag in front of federal detention center.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump and others in his administration have repeatedly characterized the Minneapolis shooting as an act of self-defense and cast Good as a villain, suggesting she used her vehicle as a weapon to attack the officer who shot her.
But state and local officials and protesters rejected that characterization, with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey saying videos show the self-defense argument is “garbage.”
Several bystanders captured footage of Good's killing, which happened in a neighborhood south of downtown.
The recordings show an officer approaching an SUV stopped across the middle of the road, demanding the driver open the door and grabbing the handle. The Honda Pilot begins to pull forward and a different ICE officer standing in front of it pulls his weapon and immediately fires at least two shots at close range, jumping back as the vehicle moves toward him.
It is not clear from the videos if the vehicle makes contact with the officer, and there is no indication of whether the woman had interactions with agents earlier. After the shooting, the SUV speeds into two cars parked on a curb before crashing to a stop.
The federal agent who fatally shot Good is an Iraq War veteran who has served for nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and ICE, according to records obtained by AP.
Noem has not publicly named him, but a Homeland Security spokesperson said her description of his injuries last summer refers to an incident in Bloomington, Minnesota, in which court documents identify him as Jonathan Ross.
Ross got his arm stuck in the window of a vehicle whose driver was fleeing arrest on an immigration violation. Ross was dragged and fired his Taser. A jury found the driver guilty of assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon.
Attempts to reach Ross, 43, at phone numbers and email addresses associated with him were not successful.
Associated Press reporters Steve Karnowski and Mark Vancleave in Minneapolis; Ed White in Detroit; Valerie Gonzalez in Brownsville, Texas; Graham Lee Brewer in Norman, Oklahoma; Michael Biesecker in Washington; Jim Mustian and Safiyah Riddle in New York; Ryan Foley in Iowa City, Iowa; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.
Protesters confront law enforcement outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)
Protesters' shadows are cast on the street near law enforcement outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)
Protesters confront law enforcement outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)
An American flag burns outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
Two protesters are lit by a police light as they walk outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
Protesters are arrested by federal agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)
Protesters sit on a barrier that is being assembled outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building as protesters gather in Minneapolis, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)
Protesters stand off against law enforcement outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore., Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Protesters chant and march during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer the day before, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Protesters gather during a rally for Renee Good, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, after she was fatally shot by an ICE officer the day before. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher)
Protesters confront federal agents outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
People gather around a makeshift memorial honoring the victim of a fatal shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, near the site of the shooting, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino arrives as protesters gather outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
A protester pours water in their eye after confronting law enforcement outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
People gather around a makeshift memorial honoring the victim of a fatal shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, near the site of the shooting, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
