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More than a few baseball fans were frustrated, if not outraged, when Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts lifted Clayton Kershaw out of a game Wednesday, despite the star left-hander being perfect for seven innings. However, Kershaw agreed with this decision.
At least that’s what the 34-year-old told reporters after the Dodgers’ 7-0 win over the Minnesota Twins. It took Kershaw 80 pitches to withdraw all 21 batters he faced and hit 13 strikeouts in the process. His eighth-inning replacement, reliever Alex Vesia, gave up a single to the second batter he faced. That ended the team’s chance to complete the first combined perfect game in MLB history.
The Dodgers got away with a combined one-hitter after another reliever, Justin Bruhl, ended things with a 1-2-3 ninth. However, much of the discussion during and after the competition focused on what could have been – and should have, according to some observers – a chance for Kershaw to put his name on a very short list. In Major League Baseball’s long history, there have only been 23 perfect games and none since 2012.
“I would have liked to stay [in the game], but bigger things, man, bigger things,” Kershaw said after his first start of the season. He added that Roberts made “the right decision” to draw him despite the circumstances.
“Blame it on the lockout,” Kershaw said. “Blame it on the fact that I haven’t picked up a ball in three months [during the offseason].”
We have to get the fans back. We have to entertain our fans. We have to keep the fans first in our thoughts. Ok then, by all means, let’s pull Clayton Kershaw from a perfect game through 7 innings and 80 pitches. #Ridiculous
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) April 13, 2022
Kershaw, whose stellar career was punctuated by a series of injuries, was sidelined for two months last season with a forearm/elbow problem. He compounded the injury when he returned in September and missed the Dodgers’ postseason run, which ended in a National League Championship Series loss to the Atlanta Braves. Kershaw reportedly waited until January to begin his offseason throwing program and his ability to start the regular season has been hampered by the owner lockout that cut spring training short.
“As much as I would have wanted to,” he said Wednesday of trying to finish a perfect game, “I threw 75 pitches in one sim game. I hadn’t gone six innings, let alone seven.”
“Every decision I make is in the best interests of the player, his health and the ball club,” Roberts said, “because there are a lot of people cheering for the Dodgers, not just for today and Clayton to throw a no. Hitter, but for the Dodgers to win the World Series. For that we need him healthy.”
Kershaw expressed sympathy for Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes’ missed opportunity to be part of a history-making battery. “Barnesy did such a great job and it’s fun to catch one like that, so I wanted to do it with Barnesy,” he said. “It would be special. But in the end these are individual things. These are selfish goals and we are trying to win.”
Barnes agreed that Roberts’ choice was in the best interest of a beginning pitcher who might not be ready to approach 100 pitches.
“Later in the season when he’s built up a bit more I think he’ll go out there [for the eighth inning]’ the catcher said of Kershaw, ‘but I think taking him out was the right decision.’
Some didn’t see it that way, including veteran pitcher Jake Arrieta.
“You MUST let Kershaw roll into the 8th” tweeted Arrieta, who is a free agent. “It doesn’t matter if it’s his 1st or 30th start. … If ever anyone deserved the right, it was him. Roll the damn dice.”
Clayton Kershaw Perfect match 80 squares take him OUT!!!!! WHAT THE! What will become of the game? One of the best of the era and you knock him out with a perfect game in 7th place, the Dodgers win 7-0. Take him OUT! THIS IS BASEBALL PLEASE PEOPLE WHO HAVE NEVER PLAYED AWAY FROM THEM
— Reggie Jackson (@mroctober) April 13, 2022
Roberts has made a similar decision in the past. In 2016, he drew Rich Hill after the seventh inning of a perfect game Hill had against the Miami Marlins. At the time, Roberts became the first manager since at least 1900 not to let a pitcher get into the eighth inning with a perfect play on the line, according to Elias Sports Bureau (via mlb.com). Afterward, Roberts cited a problem with one of Hill’s fingers, and while the pitcher said he “don’t want to get out of the game,” echoed Kershaw by pointing out “a bigger picture here.”
Kershaw, a three-time Cy Young Award winner and eight-time All-Star, has never thrown a perfect game. He threw a no-hitter for the Dodgers in 2014, contributing to the franchise’s MLB-leading total of 26 such performances.
On Wednesday, he attributed his dominant performance to “pounding the zone” with strikes. He finished with 53 strokes on 27 balls and made a score from 90an exception high number for a seven-inning start.
Kershaw said he wasn’t allowed to play the perfect game: “Sure, I would have liked to, but maybe we’ll get another chance – who knows?”