April 13, 2022: Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw pulled after seven perfect innings against Twins

Clayton Kershaw pitched a magnificent game on April 13, 2022, but did he leave too soon? The Los Angeles Dodgers’ ace left-hander threw seven perfect innings against the Minnesota Twins on a cold afternoon at Target Field.

Kershaw, making his debut in the Dodgers’ fifth game of the lockout-delayed season, threw 80 pitches and struck out 13 batters before giving way to Alex Vesia in the eighth inning. The perfect game ended on Gary Sánchez’s one-out single. Max Kepler walked before Miguel Sanó struck out and Gilberto Celestino lined out. Justin Bruhl pitched a clean ninth, and the Dodgers won, 7-0, before 17,101 chilly fans. The Dodgers hit four home runs and improved to 3-2. The Twins dropped to 2-4.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ decision to pull Kershaw sparked lots of debate. Only 21 pitchers since 1900 had thrown a perfect game and none since Félix Hernández of the Seattle Mariners on August 15, 2012. Hall of Fame slugger Reggie Jackson, always eager to share his opinion, posted on social media, “Clayton Kershaw Perfect game 80 pitches, take him OUT!!!!! WHAT THE! What’s the game coming to?”1

Fellow Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins posted, “Not even if I had a broken arm and had to roll the ball over the plate am I leaving a perfect game in the 7th.” ESPN baseball reporter Jeff Passan insisted, “Everything – especially a pitch count of 80 – is lining up to at least let Kershaw try.”2

Others noted that Kershaw had suffered an elbow injury in his last start of 2021 and did not pick up a baseball until January. During spring training, Kershaw threw just 101 total pitches in game action. Joe Rivera of The Sporting News wrote that “asking him to potentially make the jump to 100-plus in a single regular-season start is asking for trouble.”3

Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke wrote, “The Dodgers eschewed a moment of individual glory for an eventual opportunity at team greatness. … They’re not going to sacrifice six months of health for one afternoon of buzz.”4 Jim Alexander from the South Bay Daily Breeze also took the long view: He called the removal of Kershaw “common sense” and criticized the “pitchfork and torches crowd” that wanted him to keep pitching.5

Kershaw himself said, “We’re here to win, and that (being removed from the game) was the right choice.”6

This was the second of a two-game series. The Dodgers won the previous evening, 7-2, thanks to a six-run eighth inning. That game took four hours to complete because of a rain delay. Kershaw explained his strategy for the Wednesday matinee: “Just go fast. It was cold. I think after the game last night, how late it was and the quick turnaround, I know everyone was grinding except me. I got a good night’s sleep, so I was ready to go.”7 The temperature at first pitch was 38 degrees with an 18 MPH wind blowing out to center field. Skies were overcast.

Dodgers batters gave their pitcher a lead in the first inning. Mookie Betts led off by doubling against Twins starter Chris Paddack, a 26-year-old right-hander in his fourth season. After Freddie Freeman – a seven-time All-Star and former NL MVP who had signed a six-year, $162 million free-agent contract with Los Angeles a month earlier – lined out, Trea Turner reached base on an infield single. Betts advanced to third on third baseman Giovanny Urshela’s throwing error. Justin Turner followed with a two-run single.

Kershaw struck out two batters in the home half of the first, and the Dodgers scored another run in the top of the second. Once again Betts began the rally. This time he singled and moved to third on Freeman’s double. He scored on Trea Turner’s sacrifice fly.

Kershaw racked up two more strikeouts in the second inning and one in the third. He fanned two batters in both the fourth and the fifth, giving him nine so far, and struck out the side in the sixth.

Roberts and Kershaw had talked after that frame. Kershaw said he wanted to complete one more inning and throw 80 to 85 pitches.8 Byron Buxton began the seventh by striking out. Luis Arráez – headed for his first of back-to-back batting titles in 2022 – popped out, bringing up Urshela, who nearly ended the perfecto.

The journeyman infielder “scorched” a ball that zipped through Kershaw’s legs and ricocheted off the pitcher’s mound but was fielded by shortstop Gavin Lux, who threw to Freeman for the out. “Luxy made a great play,” Kershaw said.9

As he walked off the mound, Kershaw, according to Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times, “gave a wide-eyed smile to Gavin Lux” and “laughed while fist-bumping teammates in the dugout as he descended the stairs.”10

As they did the previous night, the Dodgers enjoyed a big eighth inning. This time they hit three consecutive home runs off Dereck Rodríguez, a 29-year-old right-hander who had relieved Paddack to start the fifth. In his first three innings of work, Rodríguez walked three but did not give up a hit.

With one out in the eighth, Bellinger homered over the right-center-field wall. Lux, the next batter, homered to a similar location. Catcher Austin Barnes’ home run traveled down the left-field line. Los Angeles took a 6-0 lead.

“Boos rained down” in the bottom of the eighth as Vesia came in from the bullpen. Fans, “many of them wearing Dodger blue,”11 wanted to see Kershaw return to the mound.

Even so, Roberts said, “There’s a point where I’ve got to decide, ‘to what end?’ I’m as big fan as anyone and I’m a fan of Clayton and to see a battery of him and Austin to throw a perfect game or a no-hitter, I’m all in. But, again, to what end? To what cost?”12

Muncy wrapped up the scoring when he homered off Griffin Jax to lead off the ninth inning. Bruehl retired Nick Gordon, Trevor Larnach (pinch-hitting for Buxton), and Arráez in the bottom of the ninth.

Kershaw told reporters, “I knew going in that my pitch count wasn’t going to be 100, let alone 90 or whatever. So, I don’t know. It’s a hard thing to do to have to come out of the game when you’re doing that. But we’re here to win.”13 About their brief talk, Roberts said, “A guy like Clayton, he earns the right to have a conversation.”14 Kershaw said that in his last two innings, “My slider was horrible.”15

The 34-year-old Dallas, Texas, product pitched his seven innings in just a short-sleeve jersey and rarely threw a pitch harder than 90 MPH. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said, “It’s not about velocity. He has pretty good deception on what he does. His delivery is unique. If you haven’t seen it a bunch, I bet it’s difficult to pick up the release point of just where it’s coming out.”16

Dodgers players supported Roberts’ decision to remove Kershaw. Barnes said, “The most important thing is to keep him healthy and being there for the team.” Justin Turner said, “Obviously, when you’re two innings away and (have) a chance at history, it’s tough on anyone in that situation. But collectively, we’re here to win a championship and he’s going to be a big part of that.”17

A sportswriter noted that Kershaw still threw more pitches than any Dodgers starter had so far in the young season. Eleven of his strikeouts came on the slider, which was effective early in the game. Twins batters took 40 swings at that pitch and missed half the time.18

Kershaw did not give up a hard-hit ball (one with an exit velocity of at least 95 MPH.) He threw just six pitches in the third inning, eight in the fifth, and 11 in the seventh. “I kept pounding the zone, throwing strikes,” Kershaw said. “And it worked out today.”19

Sportswriter Plaschke complimented Kershaw for putting his team above a spot in the record book. “Seriously,” he wrote, “is there anything more perfect?”20

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Harrison Golden and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Clayton Kershaw, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN202204130.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2022/B04130MIN2022.htm

Notes

1 Ryan Glasspiegel, “Reggie Jackson Outraged by Dodgers Pulling Clayton Kershaw With Perfect Game,” New York Post, April 13, 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/04/13/reggie-jackson-outraged-by-dodgers-pulling-clayton-kershaw.

2 “Reggie Jackson Outraged by Dodgers Pulling Clayton Kershaw With Perfect Game.”

3 Joe Rivera, “Why Did Dave Roberts Pull Clayton Kershaw during Perfect Game? Dodgers Manager Yanks Starter Chasing MLB History,” The Sporting News, April 13, 2022.

4 Bill Plaschke, “Roberts Definitely Gets This One Right,” Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2022: B10.

5 Jim Alexander, “Dave Roberts Pulling Kershaw after 7 Perfect Innings Was the Right Call,” South Bay Daily Breeze (Hermosa Beach, California), April 13, 2022, https://www.dailybreeze.com/2022/04/13/alexander-dave-roberts-pulling-clayton-kershaw-after-7-perfect-innings-was-the-right-call/.

6 “Dave Roberts Pulling Kershaw after 7 Perfect Innings Was the Right Call.”

7 Megan Ryan, “Kershaw Cool with Perfect 7,” Minneapolis Star-Tribune, April 14, 2022: C1.

8 “Kershaw Cool with Perfect 7.”

9 Jack Harris, “It’s a Story with a Hook,” Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2022: B10.

10 “It’s a Story with a Hook.”

11 Ryan, “Kershaw Cool with Perfect 7”

12 “Kershaw Cool with Perfect 7.”

13 Harris, “It’s a Story with a Hook.”

14 “It’s a Story with a Hook.”

15 “It’s a Story with a Hook.”

16 Ryan, “Kershaw Cool with Perfect 7.”

17 Jack Harris, “Kershaw Looks Great and the Bats Come Alive,” Los Angeles Times, April 14, 2022: DD1.

18 “Kershaw Looks Great and the Bats Come Alive.”

19 “Kershaw Looks Great and the Bats Come Alive.”

20 Plaschke, “Roberts Definitely Gets This One Right.” During Roberts’ tenure as Dodgers’ manager, several other pitchers have been relieved during no-hit or perfect-game performances: Ross Stripling (relieved after 7⅓ no-hit innings in his major-league debut in 2016), Rich Hill (relieved after seven perfect innings in 2016), Walker Buehler (relieved after six no-hit innings in his third major-league start in 2018), Emmet Sheehan (relieved after six no-hit innings in his first major-league start in 2023). The only instance that resulted in a combined no-hitter was May 4, 2018, when Buehler, Tony Cingrani (one inning), Yimi García (one inning), and Adam Liberatore (one inning) no-hit the San Diego Padres in Monterrey, Mexico.