Forgive me for thinking Wednesday might have been National Second-Guessers Day. Or maybe that’s just a floating holiday that kicks in whenever Dave Roberts makes a high-profile pitching change.
The Dodgers manager again inflamed the experts on social media by doing something that (a) he’s done before, (b) was actually common sense given the situation, and (b) had the imprimatur of Clayton Kershaw himself, when he pulled the future Hall of Famer after 80 pitches and seven perfect innings in a 7-0 victory over the Twins in Minneapolis.
Roberts probably had an idea of the storm that would follow, and in fact, Joe Davis and Eric Karros on the Dodgers’ SportsNet LA telecast discussed the difficulty of the decision at length during the innings leading up to it. And, true to form after it happened, Baseball Twitter went bonkers. Some samples:
“Pulling Clayton Kershaw six outs away from a perfect game at 80 pitches should be a crime punishable by up to 90 years in prison. Come on.” (This from someone whose Twitter bio lists him as the “Tribal Chief of Baseball.” Right.)
Pulling Clayton Kershaw six outs away from a perfect game at 80 pitches should be a crime punishable by up to 90 years in prison. Come on.
— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) April 13, 2022
“If it’s a no-hitter, whatever. Yank him. Clayton Kershaw has thrown one. But there have been more than 220,000 games in MLB history. There have been 23 perfect games. Everything – especially a pitch count of 80 – is lining up to at least let Kershaw try. You cannot pull him.” (This was from ESPN’s Jeff Passan, who at least has a working knowledge of the game.)
If it’s a no-hitter, whatever. Yank him. Clayton Kershaw has thrown one.
But there have been more than 220,000 games in MLB history. There have been 23 perfect games.
Everything — especially a pitch count of 80 — is lining up to at least let Kershaw try. You cannot pull him.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 13, 2022
“Clayton Kershaw Perfect game 80 pitches, take him OUT !!!!! WHAT THE! what’s the game coming to?1 of the era’s best, and you take him out with a perfect game in the 7th, 7-0 Dodgers winning. Take him OUT! THIS IS BASEBALL PLEASE PEOPLE THAT HAVE NEVER PLAYED GET OUT OF ITS WAY” (This from none other than Reggie Jackson, Mr. October himself, who apparently forgot that Roberts played 832 major league games. Someone who has been affiliated with the New York Yankees should certainly know his history.)
Clayton Kershaw Perfect game 80 pitches, take him OUT !!!!! WHAT THE! what’s the game coming to?1 of the era’s best, and you take him out with a perfect game in the 7th, 7-0 Dodgers winning. Take him OUT! THIS IS BASEBALL PLEASE PEOPLE THAT HAVE NEVER PLAYED GET OUT OF ITS WAY
— Reggie Jackson (@mroctober) April 13, 2022
And from the less informed:
“Dave Roberts thank you for ruining baseball for the day …”
“Dave Roberts is trash! Seven perfect innings and you pull him? Don’t even give the man a chance for immortality? …”
“Great job Dave Roberts. You just canceled history in the making …”
“Sad day for baseball today. Sad for the sport. Dave Roberts is a coward.”
“When it comes to starting pitching, if something is not broken, DON’T FIX IT!”
“Perfect through 7, only 80 pitches, 6 run lead, and yall STILL pull him. I don’t care if ‘spring training was shortened’, hell I’m a Red Sox fan, I don’t even follow you guys. Let the man finish.” (Did this tweeter ever stop to think he’s not the constituency Roberts is concerned with?)
And, of course, the traditional: “Fire Dave Roberts now.”
No one from the pitchforks and torches crowd evidently bothered to factor in the background. Kershaw was returning from an elbow issue that kept him out of the 2021 postseason, and he didn’t pick up a ball until January (and because of the lockout didn’t re-sign with the Dodgers until March 13). A 3½-week spring training, again because of the lockout, meant that he and every other starting pitcher in the game was ramping up more slowly than normal when the season began.
And not only was Kershaw fine with the decision, but Roberts said when he asked after the sixth how he felt, the response was, “I’d like to go back out there for the seventh and 80, 85 pitches, that’s kind of where I want to finish.”
Kershaw himself noted in his postgame interview that “as much as I would have wanted to do it, I’ve thrown 75 pitches in a (simulated) game, and I hadn’t gone six innings, let alone seven.
“… We’re here to win, and this was the right choice.”
Say that Roberts instead let him continue without having had that pitch count buildup, and overuse in 30-some degree Minnesota weather led to yet another arm or elbow or shoulder malady for a 34-year-old pitcher who already has had six injured list stints in the last six seasons, including two last year.
If you just want to be entertained, I suppose that risk doesn’t matter to you. But if you root for the Dodgers to win, and specifically to earn Kershaw that second World Series ring that he wants so much, you might think a little more carefully about how much the manager should push his pitcher – or any pitcher – a week into the season with all of those factors involved.
Yes, perfect games are the rarest of the rare. Yes, Roberts has a history of debatable pitching decisions – and yes, he’s removed pitchers with no-hitters before and in fact removed Rich Hill after seven perfect innings in 2016, again in the interest of health, making him the only manager in major league history to do so once, much less twice.
And yes, this is the kind of moment that gets all of Baseball Twitter aroused, which leads to tweeting before thinking. (Actually, that’s probably the real national pastime, but I digress.)
“Every decision I make is for the best interests of the player, their health and the ballclub, because there’s a lot of people that are cheering for the Dodgers, not only just for today and Clayton to throw a no-hitter, but for the Dodgers to win the World Series,” Roberts said.
“And for us to do that, we need him healthy.”
At this point of the season, with all of the contributing factors, Roberts’ decision was absolutely the right one.
jalexander@scng.com
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