A pair of future Hall-of-Fame pitchers will face off against each other on Friday at Dodger Stadium.

With the Toronto Blue Jays beginning a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, fresh off outscoring the Colorado Rockies 45-6 over three games, the club is sending right-hander Max Scherzer to the mound in Friday’s opener, where he’ll be opposed by none other than Clayton Kershaw.

It’ll be the fifth overall meeting (regular season and playoffs) between Scherzer and Kershaw, both members of the elite 3,000 strikeout club. The first matchup occurred during their respective rookie campaigns on Sep. 7, 2008 — a pitching matchup between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks that was infamously supposed to feature Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson.

According to MLB researcher Sarah Langs, Scherzer and Kershaw are the first duo of rookie opponents to record at least 3,000 strikeouts in baseball history. Once inducted into Cooperstown, they’ll also join the rare class of Hall-of-Fame pitchers to start against each other as rookies, following in the footsteps of the Kid Nichols-Cy Young matchup (Sep. 22, 1980) and Nichols-Jesse Burkett (June 18, 1980).

These two legendary hurlers last faced off against each other on Apr. 11, 2021, when Scherzer was still a member of the Washington Nationals — but not for much longer. A few months later, the now-41-year-old was traded to the Dodgers and pitched to a sparkling 1.98 ERA across 11 regular-season starts before departing in free agency that off-season.

Interestingly, Scherzer recorded his 3,000th career strikeout during his brief stint in Los Angeles. Kershaw, who’s spent his entire 18-year career with the Dodgers, accomplished the milestone achievement on July 2 versus the Chicago White Sox.

They’re the two most recent entrants to baseball’s prestigious 3,000 strikeout club, a list of only 20 standout pitchers. Justin Verlander is the only other active hurler who sits among this star-studded group, positioned one spot ahead of Scherzer by 46 punchouts.

There’s been plenty of accolades accumulated by the Scherzer-Kershaw duo over the years, with both combining for 19 All-Star appearances, six Cy Young Awards, four World Series rings and one NL MVP trophy (won by Kershaw in 2014).

As accomplished as both hurlers are, though, they’ve each taken different trajectories on their respective pathways to Cooperstown.

Scherzer began his career in Arizona, spending two seasons with the Diamondbacks before being traded to the Detroit Tigers, where he spent five seasons from 2010-14. From there, he made stops in Washington, Los Angeles, New York (Mets), Texas and now Toronto.

Entering Friday’s rematch, the veteran righty has made 465 career starts, spanning 2,919 innings, putting him 81 frames shy of reaching 3,000 — a historic benchmark that may have to wait until 2026, if he plans to continue playing beyond this season.

As for Kershaw, injuries have severely plagued the Dodgers legend over the past two seasons, limiting him to 20 combined starts since the start of 2024. But the 37-year-old lefty is healthy again, primed to continue building on his Hall-of-Fame resume, which includes a 2.52 ERA across 2,808.1 career innings — all with the Dodgers organization.

After spending most of this season on the IL, Scherzer comes into this throwback showdown on an impressive run, pitching to a very respectable 4.13 ERA and 4.40 FIP over his last four starts, issuing 28 strikeouts and only two walks over 24 innings.