Head to head · Career pitching
Clayton Kershaw vs Jon Lester
In 2021 Clayton Kershaw has been worth 3.4 more wins. Both lines are computed from play-by-play on the same constants, so they are measured the same way rather than quoted from two sources.
- Two of the 25 most valuable pitching careers on this site, 2005–2026, by dbWAR.
Career
Totalled over the seasons published here, which is not the same as a whole career: a player who debuted before 2005 begins at 2005, not at his real first game.
| Statistic | Clayton Kershaw | Jon Lester |
|---|---|---|
| G | 455 | 452 |
| GS | 451 | 451 |
| IP | 2,855.1 | 2,740.0 |
| W | 223 | 200 |
| L | 96 | 117 |
| SV | 0 | 0 |
| SO | 3,052 | 2,488 |
| BB | 713 | 892 |
| ERA | 2.53 | 3.66 |
| WHIP | 1.02 | 1.28 |
| K/9 | 9.6 | 8.2 |
| BB/9 | 2.2 | 2.9 |
| HR/9 | 0.7 | 1.0 |
| WAR | 74.4 | 45.0 |
2021 season
| Statistic | Clayton Kershaw | Jon Lester |
|---|---|---|
| G | 22 | 28 |
| GS | 22 | 28 |
| IP | 121.2 | 141.1 |
| W | 10 | 7 |
| SO | 144 | 91 |
| ERA | 3.55 | 4.71 |
| FIP | 3.00 | 5.41 |
| WHIP | 1.02 | 1.51 |
| K/9 | 10.7 | 5.8 |
| BB/9 | 1.6 | 3.5 |
| FIP− | 70 | 127 |
| WAR | 3.2 | -0.2 |
Postseason
Box-score figures only: October is kept out of the season constants, so there is no wOBA, FIP or dbWAR for it.
| Statistic | Clayton Kershaw | Jon Lester |
|---|---|---|
| G | 41 | 26 |
| GS | 32 | 22 |
| IP | 196.2 | 154.0 |
| W | 13 | 9 |
| SV | 1 | 0 |
| SO | 213 | 133 |
| BB | 54 | 40 |
| ERA | 4.62 | 2.51 |
| WHIP | 1.14 | 1.02 |
| K/9 | 9.7 | 7.8 |
| BB/9 | 2.5 | 2.3 |
More head to heads
The same seasons, measured against somebody else.
FIP uses the constant solved from this season’s own runs, and FIP− is park-adjusted against the same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page. To put these two beside a third, the comparison page takes up to four.