They’ve played 18 respective big-league seasons. They’ve combined for nearly 6,500 strikeouts and 435 career wins. They each have two World Series titles, and three individual Cy Young Awards. And one day, they’ll share immortal plaques in Cooperstown, future first-ballot Hall of Famers who defined their generation of pitchers.

For Clayton Kershaw and Max Scherzer , there’s nothing left to prove.

That doesn’t mean, however, that there’s nothing left to play for.

On Friday night at Dodger Stadium, in a pitcher’s duel that saw both veteran aces turn in vintage performances, two players who have meant so much to the sport’s past found themselves in the center of its present.

They were both pitching for first-place teams. They were both effective despite their diminished stuff. They we

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