Kershaw pulled after 7 perfect innings and 80 pitches
 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Clayton Kershaw was perfect through 7 innings on 80 pitches.<br><br>The Dodgers elected to pull him from the game ending his chance at just the 24th perfect game in MLB history. <a href="https://t.co/6m14BfPATw">pic.twitter.com/6m14BfPATw</a></p>&mdash; ESPN (@espn) <a href="https://twitter.com/espn/status/1514323034383040518?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I'm not even a baseball fan, but I find this incredible. In the history of the MLB, there have been 23 perfect games, why not give him a shot? He only had 80 pitches on the day. Maybe there is more to the story like an injury, but it doesn't sound like it at this point.

I would have been irate if I was Kershaw. He should have refused to come out of the game.

Roberts is an idiot.

As a Dodgers fan? The only explanation is that Roberts is a ****ing idiot.

Yeah you could argue what ifs about injuries but the dude is at the tail end of his career. Let him go for it and pull him if he screws it up.

Probably did him a favor. Now people are wondering what if instead of memeing him after he inevitably choked it away with a blooper into left in the 9th.

Modern baseball is a farce.

First we have Brandon Staley now this? Must be a Cali thing.

I love baseball, always have, but I have no illusions about why baseball is dying.

Geez. Do they have to pay him extra if he's perfect?

Like did the Dodgers score negative two runs so they were technically losing and needed the bat ----- oh shit DH in the NL now... WTF.?!?

Why pull him after 7 perfect innings and ONLY 80 pitches?!?! Had to be precautionary right? Maybe Kershaw felt some tightness in the elbow or something along those lines?

Makes no sense. First start. Only at 80 pitches. You have the lead.

You can pull him after he gives up a hit.

Roberts is just doing what he's told from above, as all managers do these days (at least on the "smart" teams). If you don't do that, you won't be employed as a manager for too long.

Baseball isn't really a sport so much these days as it is a micromanaged board game run by Ivy Leaguers with econ/stats degrees.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Since 1901, two pitchers have been pulled from a game after throwing 7+ perfect innings:<br><br>• Rich Hill, 9/10/16<br>• �������������� ��������������, ����������<br><br>Both starts were for the Dodgers and the manager was Dave Roberts.<br><br>(via <a href="https://twitter.com/StatsBySTATS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@StatsBySTATS</a>) <a href="https://t.co/z6GsHijM5d">pic.twitter.com/z6GsHijM5d</a></p>&mdash; Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/ActionNetworkHQ/status/1514330821813051394?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I think Kershaw had to have told him he was running out of gas and didn't want to push it.

There's just no way Roberts takes the ball from him if Kershaw didn't sign off on it.

I mean he was cruising. He could've finished that game at 100 pitches the way he was flying through the Twins. He didn't have to go for the Ks anymore and could've pitched to contact some.

If he wanted a shot, Roberts would've given it to him. Especially with the DH.

The front office surely wasn't telling Roberts to pull his starter at 80 pitches. Not when this is a veteran guy on a short-term deal.

It had to be Clayton's call.

And people wonder why Baseball is in decline.

The front office no doubt told Roberts what Kershaw's pitch limit today was before the game and Roberts followed those instructions (as he's no doubt done every other time he's pulled a pitcher "early").

But yes, I do agree that Kershaw signed off on it too.

They pulled him early because of the short spring training with the lockout, and the fact he missed the last two months of the regular season with a bad arm. Nobody is going deep into games for a little while until teams feel comfortable. Sucks, but I get it.

Kershaw and the catcher both agree with the decision. Sounds like he was getting tired. Man, who cares? You gotta try for a perfect game.

Kershaw was only 50/50 on even coming back this year. That's why LAD didn't offer him the QO.

He told them he wanted to maybe pitch for them, maybe pitch for the Rangers or maybe just not pitch. So they didn't give him the QO in case he decided to sign with the Rangers.

He decided to come back. But it wasn't for money or glory - it was just to pitch in the post-season again.

It doesn't surprise me even a little that he was like 'eh, **** it. I'm just here for October...' and shut it down.

He ain't Max Scherzer. He's a really chill guy so I can absolutely see him bowing out.

To me, that would be exactly why I go back in for the 8th. How many guys Have thrown a perfect game?

Either way, if he was cool with it, who am I to complain.

How did the relievers do?

I completely believe that he sees the world that way. But I think it's dumb.

The lockout and shortened spring training have resulted in starting pitchers getting pulled real early this season, leaguewide. Carlos Rodon of the Giants, Michael Lorenzen of the Angels, and Jesus Luzardo of the Marlins all come to mind. I'm surprised they let Kershaw go as deep as they did, especially since it's Dave Roberts, famous for pulling Rich Hill out during no-hitters.

23, I believe.

But one of 'em is Phillip Humber.

Again, it's just not how Kershaw is wired. Honestly it's part of why I think he's had the post-season problems he's had (and yes, whiney Dodger fans that refuse to acknowledge that he's had some REALLY rough post-seasons, he has struggled in the post-season).

Kershaw is an unbelievable pitcher and first ballot HoFer, but I've never thought of him as a bulldog really. That's just not the kind of thing that's ever seemed to motivate him.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">More Kershaw: &quot;I knew going in my pitch count wasn&#39;t going to be 100 let alone 90. It&#39;s a hard thing to do, coming out of a game like that, but like I said, we&#39;re here to win, and this is the right choice.&quot;</p>&mdash; Jon Weisman (@jonweisman) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonweisman/status/1514332286631567362?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

He was on a pitch count and he wasn't going to go against management on this one given the club's championship aspirations.

ended up giving up a single hit and a walk

Meanwhile Scherzer would've said "**** your pitch count - I'll still be ready in October" and thrown his manager into a wood chipper if he tried to take the ball.

Just different dudes.

Plus, he's already got a no hitter. Not quite as impressive as a perfecto, but it's basically the pitcher's version of a straight flush. Still pretty rare and cool. I'm thinking he doesn't really GAF about personal accolades at this point. Plus, I actually like Kershaw but does anyone really need to see more highlight shit about the Dodgers?

Reminds me of something that happened in the NHL a couple of weeks ago. As a sport with a lot of contact, injuries are pretty common in hockey. It's seen as a major accomplishment just for guys to stay healthy, so the "Iron Man Streak" of consecutive games played is a pretty notable stat.

Keith Yandle had played 989 games in a row. His career was definitely on the decline, but he was on a team that was way out of a playoff spot. Rather than let the guy become the first player to hit 1,000 consecutive games in a row in NHL history, his coach (Mike Yeo) decided to make him a healthy scratch so that some young guys could get some playing time.

I mean, I get it. It was probably technically the best move for the team's long term. But on the other hand, these are the little things that fans love to root for. It's kind of bullshit not to let the guy play 11 more games before he sat him down.

Mike Yeo is a stupid ****stick.

He's Herm Edwards stupid.

He's "get your ass fired while in last-place in the entire league at the halfway point only to see the team you were coaching storm back and win the Stanley Cup" stupid.

Mike Yeo can eat all the dicks.

This. If I were making the call, I'd probably let him pitch more. But this early in the season, with spring training lockout, nobody is throwing 100 pitches.

Trey Hillman would've insisted he throw 50 more pitches

This, I'm kind of surprised to see the negative comments about this (although not surprised). Its the 4th or 5th game of a long season in which all pitchers are behind on their usual progression.

Seems people would rather keep things like their papi taught them in the good ole days and have him finish the game with 110 pitches and then be out for the playoffs with another arm injury.

Dave Roberts is a ****ing **** and I don't want to argue about it.

If he throws two perfect innings to start his next game they'll give him credit for the prefect game. It's the new CBA

And Scherzer experienced a dead arm in the last postseason, so…

In all truth, I’m a Mets fan and still can’t believe we have the guy. Always loved him from afar. What a gamer.

Lol.

It’s also written into EB’s new contract

F me, he's still playing, lol.

He was a stud years ago when I played fantasy bb, lol.

He experienced dead arm because he got randomly used in relief.

Oh, man, I had no idea. THAT’S why you were defending ESPN’s interview of Pete Alonso in the Home Run Derby last year. Now it all makes sense! :D

Baseball is gay

Yes, because the guy has no fear going beyond his bounds and will take the ball at any point, as you said. Sometimes that works out well and other times it doesn't.

There are times when being a gamer isn't in the best interests of the team.

https://vault.si.com/vault/2009/06/0...e-ever-pitched

Both pitchers went the distance in the Greatest Game Ever Pitched. 13 innings.

Wouldn't happen in today's soft game.

you the same Scherzer who said that they pitched him too much by going in to save a game in the post season which resulted in his "Dead" arm? that dude?

Kershaw has had back injuries the last few years, and dealt with some forearm issues last year which ended his season didnt start throwing until Jan. It was the right move.

If he was okay with the move, no reason to complain about it from the fans. Like DJ said, reflects on him. His desire to battle.

Explains why we have beaten him sooo many times in the playoffs with teams that had no business beating him.

Analytics is the killing the sport and the worst ****ing thing to ever happen to baseball and no one will tell me otherwise.

MUH LAUNCH ANGLE….**** outta here…

Ted Williams was teaching launch angle and matching your swing plane to the incoming pitch 60 years ago. It's the RIGHT approach.

This was from Ted Williams book in 1970:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRruuJEV...jpg&name=small

That's 'launch angle' fellas. It's what modern hitting coaches are teaching guys to do now to ensure the bat head stays in the hitting zone longer. In the 60s and 70s through to the early 2000s when hitting coaches were teaching guys to 'swing down' on the ball and attack the front half of it, they were ignoring what the greatest hitter of all time had been telling folks they should be doing for half a century.

This isn't new and it isn't bad. The problem is small parks combined with stronger players and pitchers who are told to let it fly along with new understanding of how pitches work that make them more effective and deceptive than ever.

Stuff like seam shifted wakes and pitch tunneling make pitchers more capable than ever of 'surprising' the hitter in the 5 feet before ball crosses the plate. And pitch tracking technologies have given them an edge that they simply didn't have, especially when combined with organizational shifts w/r/t things like shoulder loading to find additional velocity. Guys are more capable of seeing where it is that certain pitches they threw 'went wrong' through motion capture imaging that teaches them how to duplicate the nasty pitches while scrapping the hangers.

When you can't 'out-smart' the pitcher anymore and merely have to wait for them to execute poorly, the tables turn significantly in favor of pitching when the game was already 60/40 in their favor to begin with.

In the last 10 years pitching has just stormed forward and has gained so many advantages that hitters have realized that the odds of stringing hits together for long rallies are longer than simply swinging for the downs or trying to draw walks.

Also Ted Williams from 1981:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DSBFiu0V...jpg&name=large

This isn't a result of 'analytics' as much as people are discovering what some of the greatest players of all time already knew.

Cool…I just used launch angle as a way to rail against analytics lol…interesting what you say though, for sure.

I just think the emphasis on blaming 'analytics' is backwards is all.

The game isn't suffering because offenses saw through numbers that HRs and walks were the way to win games by using analytics. Analytics simply provided the information and it's information that simply wouldn't have come out that way 25 years ago.

The game is suffering because pitching has become so overpowered that it MADE HRs and walks the way to win games. Especially when defensive shifts can cover for defensive deficiencies of power-forward hitters. And when smaller parks and increased nutrition means there's more power in the game than ever before.

I mean g'damn, look at a guy like Tyler O'Neill. That guy is a literal bodybuilder who is in the top 3% sprint speed in baseball. He's a freakin' monster. 30 years go Bo Jackson was a national phenomenon for being a guy just like O'Neill, now O'Neill is another face in the crowd.

Analytics didn't change the game - they simply told us that the game had changed.

And as it relates specifically to something like launch angle, I think the common fan simply misunderstands what the concept means. They're not always talking about how the ball comes off the bat (though that's part of it). They're talking about exactly what Williams is talking about there. It's about matching your swing to the path of the pitch so that your bat stays in the hitting zone longer to create more contact. THEN they'll start talking about mostly timing mechanisms that can address how the ball comes off the bat.

But it still all starts with the hit tool. If you can't put the barrel on the ball, all the raw power in the world doesn't mean anything but a fast grounder or high popup. So hitting coaches aren't teaching guys to try to hit up for loft. They're teaching guys to stay in the hitting zone by changing their attack angle THEN change their timing and their hands to do more damage at impact.

I'll probably never find it, but I saw an article about a guy who 'discovered' the Barry Bonds 'loop' in his swing by watching the knob of the bat. He thought he'd uncovered a holy grail. Nope - Williams was teaching THAT as well and any video of his swing back in the day demonstrates it.

Wanna know how little most hitters truly understand about how they hit?

Barry Bonds will tell EVERYONE that his daddy taught him to swing down on the ball and chop wood and that's the way hitters should do it.

Now watch him actually swing the bat:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VUTW4FsMeNQ?start=20" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Barry Bonds doesn't even swing down on the ball. He does EXACTLY what Williams says to do. He attacks with the knob, keeps his hands inside and 'loops' the barrel down/around to match the plane of the incoming pitch. In essence, he goes back before he comes forward to put the bat path in alignment with the pitch.

And yet he'll tell you that's not what he was taught.

Also said he hadn't attempted more than 75 pitches at any point in this pre/season. No reason to try to push 100 out of him when your goal is a World Series title.

I don't understand baseball contracts for starting pitchers. Would you pay Mahomes $45 million to play 4 games per season and rarely play the fourth quarter? I sure as hell wouldn't. Or imagine paying Lebron $40 million to play 20 games and rarely play the fourth quarter.

These starting pitchers are paid insane money to play once every five games; and even then they don't play the complete game.

Kershaw said after the game the last 2 innings he threw, his slider was getting worse and worse. He doesnt seem upset