As most Dodger fans know, something interesting usually happens at Dodger Stadium almost nightly, but on Friday night three somethings occurred that were not only interesting but historic.

First and foremost was the fact that Dodgers ace and defending 2014 NL MVP and Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw picked up his 100th career win, which clearly meant more to the fans and media than it did to Kershaw himself.

“I don’t know if it means a whole lot, but it’s something to celebrate I guess,” Kershaw told reporters after the Dodgers 6-4 win over the Rockies. “Hopefully just getting started. I guess it’s kind of cool … I guess if you have a good win-loss record, you count it, and if you don’t, you say that it doesn’t matter.”

After four unsuccessful attempts to collect his 100th career win, Kershaw finally succeeded on Friday night at Dodger Stadium. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Kershaw’s boss, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, hopes that his star’s milestone will finally put to rest the never-ending barrage of questions from the media about “What’s wrong with Kershaw?” In fact, he went on a rather lengthy tirade about it after Kershaw’s long-anticipated 100th career win.

“You know what? I learned a while back you can’t compare one year to the next. You’re always searching for last year, you’re searching for the rhythm of two years ago. This year is this year and he’s going to be fine,” an obviously annoyed Mattingly said. “He’s throwing the ball good, it’s coming out [of his hand well].

“Each year is different, it’s going to be fine, so this year really has to be this year and has to stand on its own,” Mattingly continued. “We can’t keep comparing to last year or the year before, it’s really not the way we play. As players you’ve got to move forward. Last year doesn’t help anybody, that’s just part of his history now, it’s just moving forward.”

With the win Kershaw is now 2-2 on the year with an un-Kershaw-like 4.24 ERA. But here again, this alone doesn’t tell the whole story. In Friday night’s game the 27-year-old Dallas, Texas native allowed three runs on four hits while walking three and striking out 10 – many of which were at crucial points in the game and of some of the Rockies best hitters. In fact, Kershaw now leads all of baseball with his 66 strikeouts thus far this season. Will the reigning and three-time NL Cy Young award winner win a fourth and third consecutive one? Maybe not. But it is reassuring that Kershaw pitches for the Dodgers rather than against them.

The second historic event of the night was when Dodgers shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who went 4 for 5 on the night and was a triple shy of the cycle, collected his 900th career Run Batted In. Rollins has been struggling at the plate in his first season with the Dodgers. It’s not that he hasn’t been hitting the ball, it’s that the balls simply haven’t been falling for the 36-year-old, 16-year MLB veteran.

“Jimmy’s been swinging the bat well for a while now, they just started to fall,” said Mattingly. “You get frustrated when you don’t see results. Tonight was definitely good.”

Former NL MVP Jimmy Rollins knocked in his 900th career run in the bottom of the eighth inning of Friday night’s game. He also went 4 for 5 and came up a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

And then there’s Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen, who finally made his 2015 debut after spending nearly three months on the disabled list recovering from surgery on his left foot. Although Mattingly said ahead of time that he would not put his closer right into that role until he has a couple of innings under his belt, Jansen not only said that he is ready for the ninth inning right now, he proved it when he became only the sixth pitcher in L.A. Dodgers history to strike out four batters in one inning:

• Pete Richert – April 12, 1962
• Don Drysdale – April 17, 1965
• Darren Dreifort – May 22, 2003
• Brad Penny – Sept. 23, 2006
• Zack Greinke – July 25, 2014
• Kenley Jansen – May 15, 2015

Jansen, who was activated off of the DL just prior to Friday night’s game, made six rehab appearances with the Dodgers Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, struck out eight in his 5.1 innings of work with the Quakes.

“It felt great to come back and get that one over with and feel relief,” Jansen said after his great outing.

Jansen entered Friday night’s game in the top of the eighth inning and struck out Rockies slugger Carlos Gonzalez swinging but Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal was unable to hang on to Jansen’s 94-MPH cutter and the passed ball went to the backstop, allowing CarGo to reach first base safely. Jansen then struck out Rockies catcher Nick Hundley, center fielder Drew Stubbs and second baseman D.J. LeMahieu, needing only 14 pitches in the inning to accomplish the rare feat. As for his historic four-strikeout inning, its significance wasn’t lost on the 27-year-old Willemstad, Curacao native.

“It was an amazing inning,” Jansen said. “That won’t happen that often.”

After Rockies right fielder Carlos Gonzalez reached first base on a passed ball third strike, Jansen struck out the next three batters he faced to record a rare four-strikeout inning.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

As they say in their promo “You never know what you might see when you come out to Dodgers Stadium,” and for the 46,662 on hand on Friday night, they were thrice rewarded.