Baseball fans, true dyed-in-the-wool, die-hard, pure baseball fans have a love affair with baseball records that are being challenged and then (hopefully) broken during their lifetimes – especially records that are decades or even a century old. There is just something special, almost intoxicating about it.

When Dodgers manager Don Mattingly pulled two-time and defending National League Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw from Friday night’s game after the eighth inning with the 26-year-old left-hander sitting on 36 consecutive scoreless innings, Dodger fans were both furious and relieved – furious that MLB’s June Pitcher of the Month wasn’t allowed to possibly (probably) extend his streak one more inning to 37, but relieved that Kershaw had escaped hitter-friendly Coors Field unscathed. And though it is impossible to track, chances are that many Dodger fans quickly got out their pocket schedules or ran to their refrigerator magnet schedules to calculate when Kershaw’s next start will be. (It’s Thursday, June 10 at Dodger Stadium against the Padres if Mattingly doesn’t alter his current five-man rotation schedule).

In addition to extending his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 36 on Friday night, Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw extended another consecutive streak – one that is more than 100 years old.
(Photo credit – David Zalubowski)

But while Kershaw was chipping away at Orel Hershiser’s remarkable 59 consecutive scoreless innings record, he successfully completed another and perhaps even more difficult consecutive streak – adding another game to the 37 (now 38) consecutive games in which Dodgers starting pitchers have allowed two or fewer walks – a record which (according to Elias Sports Bureau) dates back to 1900.

This tweet from the Dodgers official Twitter account was posted after Zack Greinke and the Dodgers defeated the Rockies 3-2 on Thursday night. Clayton Kershaw walked only one on Friday night to extend this incredible streak to 38 consecutive games.

While the consecutive scoreless innings streak is an individual record (although it requires the help of a solid defense by the entire team), the consecutive games with two or fewer walks streak is more of a team record – or at least a five-man starting rotation record.

Dodgers starter Dan Haren will attempt to extend this 114-year-old record later today when the Dodgers again take on the Rockies for game three of the four-game series. Should he prevail, the baton gets handed to Josh Beckett on Sunday, Hyun-jin Ryu on Tuesday in Detroit (Monday is an off day), Greinke on Wednesday also in Detroit and then back to Kershaw on Thursday against the Padres at Dodger Stadium – where he will attempt to (hopefully) extend two streaks.

Stay tuned…