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.”

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.