MINNEAPOLIS — It was an almost perfect reminder of what a healthy Clayton Kershaw and his slider can still do.
In his first start of the season following a winter of uncertainty, Kershaw was a throwback to his dominant days. He retired all 21 batters he faced Wednesday afternoon, 13 by strikeout, and handed over a perfect game to the bullpen when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pulled him after 80 pitches.
Reliever Alex Vesia allowed a single to the second batter he faced and the Dodgers had to settle for a one-hit shutout in a 7-0 win over the Minnesota Twins on a chilly day at Target Field.
There have been 23 perfect games thrown in major-league history. None of them involved more than one pitcher.
Kershaw breezed through the Twins lineup. He struck out five of the nine hitters the first time through the lineup, seven of nine the second time through.
His slider — the pitch that elevated him to Hall of Fame-worthy status years ago — did most of the work. Kershaw threw his slider 23 times in 69 pitches through the first six innings.
On the rare occasions when the Twins did put the ball in play, they produced an assortment of lazy fly balls or routine ground outs, leaving little in the way of challenging plays for the Dodgers’ defense to make — until the seventh inning.
Kershaw struck out Byron Buxton to start the inning then got Luis Arraez on a weak pop out. Gio Urshela took a curveball then slapped a 1-and-0 slider through the middle. The ground ball skipped through Kershaw and took an odd bounce off the pitcher’s mound. But Gavin Lux handled the odd hop by second base and threw Urshela out to end the inning.
That came on Kershaw’s 80th pitch of his first start of the season. Kershaw’s 2021 ended with him walking off the mound at Dodger Stadium on the final weekend of the regular season, having lost a battle to return from a flexor tendon-elbow injury that cost him two months of the season (and would cost him all of the postseason).
Kershaw received a platelet-rich plasma injection shortly after that aborted start and didn’t pick up a ball for three months. When he reported for a delayed and shortened spring training, Kershaw was healthy and looked strong during four preseason starts.
But the Dodgers delayed Kershaw’s first start of the season so that he could build up further. He threw 75 pitches to hitters at Dodger Stadium before the team traveled to Colorado last week.
Roberts pulled him after 80 Wednesday — and became the first manager in baseball history to twice pull a pitcher so late in a potential perfect game. He became the first to do it even once when he pulled Rich Hill after seven perfect innings against the Miami Marlins in Sept. 2016. Hill had been troubled by blister problems on his pitching hand and Roberts didn’t want to risk a recurrence so close to the playoffs.
Earlier that year, Roberts also pulled Ross Stripling from the eighth inning of his major-league debut with a no-hitter going. Reliever Chris Hatcher gave up a home run to the first batter he faced.
Kershaw pitched the entire game with the lead after the Dodgers sent eight batters to the plate in the first inning.
Mookie Betts led off with a double. An infield single and a hit batter (Max Muncy) loaded the bases with one out and Justin Turner drove in two with a single to right. An error re-loaded the bases but Cody Bellinger struck out and Lux grounded out.
The Dodgers added another run in the second when Betts singled, moved to third on a double by Freddie Freeman and scored on a sacrifice fly by Trea Turner.
They put the game away in the eighth when Bellinger, Lux and Austin Barnes hit back-to-back-to-back home runs in a span of four pitches from Twins reliever Dereck Rodriguez. Max Muncy made it a four-homer day for the Dodgers with a solo homer in the ninth inning.
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