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The Los Angeles Dodgers kept Clayton Kershaw from baseball immortality. In Wednesday's matchup against the Minnesota Twins, the 34-year-old turned back to the clock in his first start of the season, reminding the baseball world of the Clayton Kershaw that hitters feared.
He was reminiscent of the man who won the 2014 NL MVP and Cy Young Award. Through seven innings, he had racked up 13 strikeouts on an incredibly efficient 80 pitches. Not only that, Kershaw was literally perfect through 7 innings, and was a six outs from a the 24th perfect game ever thrown in MLB history.
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It was then, Dodgers manager David Roberts enraged the baseball world and pulled Clayton Kershaw out of the game. Everyone, from analysts to fans to former perfect game pitchers reacted in unison to criticize the Los Angeles Dodgers' decision.
The baseball world reacts.
"There have been more than 220,000 games in MLB history. There have been 23 perfect games...You cannot pull him" - ESPN's Jeff Passan
The Tampa Bay Rays were the only team in baseball to pursue a combined perfect game. However Ryne Stanek had only pitched two innings before Ryan Yardborough carried the perfecto into the ninth.
As Passan mentioned, this wasn't a no-hitter. The last time a pitcher was pulled from a no-hitter was just last week in Arizona, when Bob Melvin pulled Sean Manaea after seven hitless innings.
The same fate befell the Los Angeles Dodgers as Gary Sanchez notched the first Twins hit as soon as Kershaw was replaced by Alex Vesia.
Former Oakland Athletics pitcher Dallas Braden, who threw a perfect game 12 years ago, also took to Twitter. He said that if he were Kershaw, he would physically fight Dave Roberts to keep pitching.
After the game, Kershaw addressed the media and said he supported his skipper's decision, offering the MLB lockout as the scapegoat. According to Kershaw, if he had the opportunity to train and build up strength over the offseason, he and the team would have been more confident pushing Kershaw in pursuit of perfection.
Most people, however, share the same sentiment as Draftkings baseball personality Jared Carrabis. The Los Angeles Dodgers committed a crime against baseball.
The joy of the sport is that any day, even a Wednesday afternoon in April, is an opportunity for greatness. A chance to do something that has only happened in .0001% of Major League Games. Dave Roberts deprived fans of witnessing that, and the Dodgers will face a great deal of criticism going forward.
