How Clayton Kershaw’s no-hitter fits into Dodgers history

The comparisons of two-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw to the great Sandy Koufax, who has three Cy Young honors, have been made before, but it wasn’t until Wednesday night when Kershaw pitched his first no-hitter that the 26-year-old’s accomplishments began closely mirroring that of his predecessor.

Statistically, Kershaw’s 15-strikeout, no-walk performance in an 8-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies is as good as it gets. Or so says Elias Sports Bureau, and it’s tough to argue since nobody has been that dominant in a no-hitter without walking a batter.

Here’s some other facts about no-hitters in Dodgers history:

• Kershaw’s gem comes 24 days after teammate Josh Beckett’s no-no, the shortest span between teammates pitching no-hitters.

• The Dodgers have 22 of the 284 no-hitters in the majors, the most by a franchise.

• Kershaw becomes the fifth Dodgers left-hander to pitch a no-hitter; the previous one was pitched by Fernando Valenzuela in June 1990. Jerry Reuss, Koufax and Nap Rucker were the others.

• The Dodgers are the only team, thanks to Koufax, to have a no-hitter in four consecutive seasons (1963-66).

• Kershaw and Beckett are the first teammates to throw the first two no-hitters in a same season since the Chicago Cubs’ Burt Hooton and Milt Pappas in 1972.

• Sal Maglie and Carl Erskine were the last Dodgers teammates to throw no-hitters in the same season, for Brooklyn in 1956.

• The Dodgers can become the first team to have three no-hitters in the same season. There have been 13 other seasons in which a team had two no-hitters.