Clayton Kershaw gets his career WHIP back under 1.000

This was a milestone week for Clayton Kershaw, with the left-hander earning his 200th career win on Tuesday against the Mets in his best start of the season. But on Sunday he was also good, and in picking up his 201st win, WHIPping up the Dodgers’ first winning streak in two and a half weeks.

Kershaw on Sunday against the Cubs allowed three runs (one earned) in six innings, striking out six. He only allowed three hits and one walk, which brought his career totals to these:

2,612 innings
1,977 hits
634 walks

Those hits and walks add up to 2,611, which is lower than his innings total, giving Kershaw a career WHIP of 0.999617.

That’s fourth all-time, with a minimum of 1,000 innings. The three players ahead of him are two deadball-era pitchers — Addie Joss and Ed Walsh — and Jacob deGrom, who is three months younger than Kershaw and has pitched just over half the innings of the Dodgers left-hander.

Where Kershaw ends his career remains to be seen, but to allow fewer hits and walks than innings pitched into his 16th season is remarkable.

Sunday marked the first time Kershaw ended a game with a career WHIP at or under 1.000 since September 1, 2018. He’s done so nine different times in his career, the first seven of which came in a four-month stretch during the 2017 season.

Kershaw first got his WHIP under one on May 23, 2017. After that game against the Cardinals, in his 272nd career start and 275th career game, Kershaw in his career up to that point gave up 1,346 hits and 485 walks in 1,831⅔ innings, good for a WHIP of 0.99964.

“I’m not worried about the career stuff,” Kershaw said at the time. “Eventually, you’ll get to look back on it all. Hopefully, I’m right in the middle of all that stuff.”

Kershaw in September 2017 ended three straight starts with a career WHIP of exactly 1.000, and also did so on April 15, 2018. Kershaw’s first taste of a 1.000 WHIP on the dot was in his major league debut on May 25, 2008, when he allowed five hits and a walk in six innings.

Kershaw in 2018 had a 1.043 WHIP, his highest in the last 13 years. Since then he’s been hovering around 1.000 in his career, including WHIPs of 0.840 in the shortened 2020 season and 0.942 last year. This year, Kershaw has a 0.839 WHIP through five starts.

Here are the 14 games after which Kershaw had a career WHIP of 1.000 or lower.