Head to head · Career pitching
Clayton Kershaw vs Chris Sale
In 2025 Chris Sale has been worth 1.4 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 | Chris Sale |
|---|---|---|
| G | 455 | 420 |
| GS | 451 | 339 |
| IP | 2,855.1 | 2,246.2 |
| W | 223 | 159 |
| L | 96 | 97 |
| SV | 0 | 12 |
| SO | 3,052 | 2,779 |
| BB | 713 | 518 |
| ERA | 2.53 | 2.95 |
| WHIP | 1.02 | 1.04 |
| K/9 | 9.6 | 11.1 |
| BB/9 | 2.2 | 2.1 |
| HR/9 | 0.7 | 0.9 |
| WAR | 74.4 | 60.0 |
2025 season
| Statistic | Clayton Kershaw | Chris Sale |
|---|---|---|
| G | 23 | 21 |
| GS | 22 | 20 |
| IP | 112.2 | 125.2 |
| W | 11 | 7 |
| SO | 84 | 165 |
| ERA | 3.36 | 2.58 |
| FIP | 3.55 | 2.67 |
| WHIP | 1.22 | 1.07 |
| K/9 | 6.7 | 11.8 |
| BB/9 | 2.8 | 2.3 |
| FIP− | 85 | 64 |
| WAR | 2.2 | 3.6 |
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 | Chris Sale |
|---|---|---|
| G | 41 | 13 |
| GS | 32 | 9 |
| IP | 196.2 | 46.2 |
| W | 13 | 1 |
| SV | 1 | 0 |
| SO | 213 | 66 |
| BB | 54 | 14 |
| ERA | 4.62 | 5.79 |
| WHIP | 1.14 | 1.33 |
| K/9 | 9.7 | 12.7 |
| BB/9 | 2.5 | 2.7 |
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.