On an otherwise unassuming day in early April, Clayton Kershaw would flirt with baseball immortality with – what I will argue – is the best outing of his career. That’s a bold assertion—after all, Kershaw threw a near-perfect game against Colorado back in 2014, where the only baserunner reached on an error. The thing is, that was Kershaw at the peak of his powers. 2014 would be the year he won his third Cy Young award unanimously en route to winning MVP, the first NL pitcher to win the award since Bob Gibson in 1968.  Kershaw was still sitting 94 back then; it’s not a surprise that Kershaw, at his absolute peak, would have a spectacular outing.

Eight years later, Clayton Kershaw would have another flirt with perfection, but this time under very different circumstances. Already having had several injury-shortened seasons, Kershaw finished 2021 on the IL as he pitched his fewest innings since he was 20. Having long dealt with back problems by this point, Kershaw entered 2022 with major question marks about his longevity. So when Kershaw took the mound for his first start, it was under strange circumstances. Circumstances made considerably more bizarre by the fact that the 21-22′ lockout meant that there was a shortened spring training and the season was delayed a week. Just over a month after the lockout ended, Clayton Kershaw would take the mound in Minneapolis to face the Minnesota Twins. Due to the rarity of interleague play and scheduling oddities, this would end up being the first start at Target Field in Kershaw’s career. To that point, he had started 376 games, and it would be his first and only time facing the Minnesota home crowd.

A crowd that included me.

I purchased a ticket to see Clayton Kershaw take on new Twins acquisition Chris Paddack and skipped class to do so. Kershaw has always been one of my favorite players, and we even share the same birthday, so I jumped at the chance to see the Dodgers. The start time temperature was listed at 38 degrees, which I can assure you is accurate. The attendance was listed at 17,000, which I can assure you is not. This picture was taken half an hour before first pitch, but as someone who was in the stands, there were entire lower bowl sections comprised of maybe 12 people.

Fun fact: I’m in this clip. Anyway, here’s another clip from later in the game when the Dodgers blew the game open:

And later the broadcast pans out and shows…

Look there were maybe 10,000 here, but 17k? No shot. On a Wednesday noon game at 38 degrees, there were not many people here to see this outing, an outing which had potential from the lineup card. No Carlos Correa, heavily slumping Miguel Sanó, and with Byron Buxton on DH duty, Gilberto Celestino commanding center. It was not a fearsome lineup, with three lefties in Luis Arraez, Max Kepler, and Nick Gordon in the mix to face a southpaw most have never seen before.

It didn’t take long for Kershaw to get going.

In the first inning, he coaxed swings from Buxton and Arraez on sliders outside to get two strikeouts to start the outing, then Twins legend Gio Urshela hit a weak grounder on one of few hanging sliders to get Kershaw a 1-2-3 first. In the second, Twins legend Gary Sánchez waved at a slider in the zone, Jorge Polanco popped out, and then Kepler waved at another slider to give Kershaw his fourth strikeout in two frames. In the third, Sanó continued his 20-AB hitless streak with a pop-up on a fastball to make it 21, and then Celestino popped up a fastball almost to the same spot the next pitch. Kersh then threw three pitches to Nick Gordon: Fastball for a called strike, slider inside for a swinging strike, and slider outside for Gordon to whiff and sit him down.

It was around this time that I was getting cold and moved from my left-field first-baseline seat to sit behind home plate under the heaters around the concourse at Target Field. The Twins were already down 3-0, and Kershaw had struck out five Twins on 32 pitches his first go around the order. Despite how notorious Kershaw’s curveball is, he only threw it three times in the first three innings and just 11 times this game. Funnily enough, he really didn’t have a feel for it this outing, and went almost exclusively with the four-seam and slider. A slider which the Twins just

Could.

Not.

STOP.

CHASING.

It was incredible. Kershaw’s Slider had a 63% whiff rate that afternoon, getting 17 whiffs on 27 swings. Its spin rate, movement and velocity were all pretty normal for 2020s Kershaw, but he was able to locate it so well as to entice the poor Twins hitters into biting EVERY. TIME. It was like Lucy and the football; they just couldn’t touch it.

There’s a funny thing that happens when a pitcher is flirting with a perfect game. Around the fifth inning, the crowd starts to realize what’s happening. The first time through the order it might cross your mind “oh he hasn’t given up a hit yet”. Around the fifth is when the stadium starts to collectively realize that there’s a real perfect game bid going on. We’ve all seen deep no-hitter bids, but perfect games have almost an aura around them. There’s a tangible feeling in the air that something special is occurring, and with every batter that comes to the plate, more eyes turn to the 0 in the hits column.

It was in the sixth inning where I think everyone in Target Field noticed something special was occurring, right after Max Kepler weakly lined out to end the fifth. There were two things that made this outing particularly special:

The pitch count. Kershaw was sitting at 54 pitches after 5. Everyone knew that Kershaw wasn’t going to go crazy deep but he was dicing up this lineup.

Strikeouts. Kersh was at nine strikeouts through 5. All swinging.

By this point the stadium went from rooting for the Twins to rooting for history, and now the baseball world was starting to tune in. Pitching Ninja was tweeting about it, clips began to be posted on r/baseball, and in Minneapolis, a group of cold Minnesotans were eagerly awaiting the sixth:

K (10)

K (11)

ꓘ (12)

Kershaw annihilated the bottom of the Twins order, and he was suddenly nine outs away. Now comes the hard part.

At the bottom of the seventh, Kershaw returned to the mound having struck out Gordon on his 69th pitch. He was in good shape, but he would now have to face the top of the Twins order.  First came Buxton, who Kershaw would sit down with his 13th strikeout.

Yeah that’s just disgusting. Kershaw’s curveball isn’t loved by pitch modelling, but for 15 years it befuddled hitters – and Buxton was no exception here. Then up came the scariest of them, Arraez. Even though he’s a lefty, Arraez would finish 2022 as the AL batting champ and would be a pain to try and get out. On a 2-1 count, Kershaw kept a slider up but Arraez popped out to bring up Urshela. Who gave the biggest scare of the afternoon:

A hanging slider was sharply grounded up right through Kershaw’s legs. This ball only had a .410 xBA, but by a healthy margin, this was the only one even vaguely scary. There were eight balls put in play against Kershaw that day, and it was just this and a weak flyout by Max Kepler that had an xBA over .150. Fortunately for Kershaw, Gavin Lux was shaded up the middle and was there to keep the game perfect. The crowd roars. Both Joe Davis on the Dodgers Broadcast and Dick Bremer on the Twins cast exclaim in excitement as they realize that might be the moment.

At this point, we have reached nationwide attention. Clayton Kershaw was at 80 pitches and six outs away from perfection. This was a cold day where Twins hitters have looked hopeless all day, with the middle and bottom of the lineup looking particularly helpless. In a vacuum, this was hardly a sure thing. If we assume an OBP of .300, then the raw chances of getting the next six batters out without reaching is 11.7%. That’s a pretty generous assumption though considering nobody in the Twins lineup has had even a decent chance at a hit until Urshela’s grounder. If we want to be more bullish on Kershaw’s chances given his performance so far, then decreasing the OBP chance to .200 gives Kershaw a 26.2% chance, and if you want to be extremely bullish because you were a college kid sitting in the stands behind home plate watching this lefty annihilate the Twins in absolute awe, then a .150 OBP gives Kershaw a 37.7% chance.

In the top of the eighth, Dereck Rodríguez, who had taken over from Chris Paddack several innings ago, allowed three consecutive home runs to the heart of the Dodgers order. By this time I had noted to some fans around me that there was some action in the bullpen, which made me anxious. Nobody in the stands really knew what was going on. Rodríguez would end up pitching half his career innings with the Twins in long relief for this game, as all that mattered ended up being what was to come of number 22.

The bottom of the eighth comes around. The bullpen door opens. An announcement comes over the loudspeaker that Alex Vesia is entering the game. Dave Roberts has pulled Clayton Kershaw in the middle of a perfect game. Gary Sánchez would then get a hit two at-bats later, and every milestone was gone. I, and many others in attendance, left before the game went to the ninth.

The discourse around this move would go on for days. The Dodgers broadcast was quick to say that two innings in a game in April that was already won wouldn’t change anything for October. The Dodgers were looking for a second ring for Kershaw and this was the team to do it. Well alright then. Six months later, the Dodgers would appear in the NLDS and lose to San Diego in four games, with Kershaw pitching five mediocre innings in Game 2. This was a Dodgers team that won 111 games, and actually underperformed their Pythagorean W-L by five wins. Two years later, Kershaw would get his second ring, and in 2025 would, of course, win his third to end his career. So, this was, from a rings and legacy perspective, completely meaningless for Kershaw’s career. The Dodgers ended up not really needing him, and he got what he wanted in the end.

A younger, colder Carson was standing out watching as the loudspeaker announcement came, and he was heartbroken and furious. A perfect game. So many baseball fans will never see one in person, and my chance was stripped. 80 pitches. I genuinely do not think I have been as angry as I was then. Not only did my team get obliterated, but all I had in my memories was this story. I shouted “Dave Roberts hates baseball more than Manfred”, which elicited oohs from the crowd. Would there really have been harm in letting Kershaw throw until he allowed a baserunner? I checked the pitch data, he was definitely laboring, but he could just try and throw strikes. You don’t need to shove, just pitch to contact, you’re facing Gilberto Celestino!

It’s been three and a half years since this outing. I probably will never quite get over the decision to pull Kershaw, but I can take solace that I saw Clayton Kershaw at his most lethal. By game score, Kershaw’s flirt with perfection is the best seven-inning game ever tossed. That Wednesday, Kershaw took the mound for the only time ever in Minnesota, got 13 strikeouts, 20 whiffs, and didn’t allow a single baserunner. In the history of Major League Baseball, there have only been a handful of outings where a pitcher never allowed a baserunner. The top 21 by game score are all perfect games. Tied for #22 is #22 on his masterpiece in Minneapolis.