LOS ANGELES -- On Sept. 7, 2008, Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux, two of baseball's all-time greats in the twilight of their careers, had been slated to face off against each other in a D-backs-Dodgers matchup at Dodger Stadium. Instead, a 24-year-old Max Scherzer and a 20-year-old Clayton Kershaw , both unproven rookies, ended up starting in place of the Hall of Famers .

Seventeen years later, they took the mound opposite one another again in Friday night's series opener between the Blue Jays and Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. They did so as the first pitchers in Major League history to start against each other as rookies, then go on to each rack up 3,000 career strikeouts, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Both reached the career milestone at Dodger Stadium, Scherzer in 2021 and

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