MINNEAPOLIS — Clayton Kershaw gave a wide-eyed smile to Gavin Lux as he walked off the field.
He laughed while fist-bumping teammates in the dugout as he descended the stairs.
Then he found catcher Austin Barnes and wrapped him in a quick hug, the only time a dejected look ever crossed his face.
“Sorry,” Kershaw told his catcher, as a perfect day came to an imperfect end.
Barnes looked back at the future Hall of Famer, tapped his side and flashed a grin.
There was nothing for the left-handed legend to be sorry about, not after beginning his 14th Dodgers season Wednesday with a stunning — and almost historic — bang.
In the Dodgers’ 7-0 win over the Minnesota Twins, Kershaw pitched seven perfect innings before being removed by manager Dave Roberts with the pitch count at 80 in his first outing after a lockout-shortened spring training.
The Dodgers’ combined perfect game bid was broken up an inning later, when Gary Sánchez singled against reliever Alex Vesia to record the Twins’ only hit of the game.
In the aftermath, the rest of the baseball world was ablaze second-guessing the decision. Fans, pundits and even current and former players debated online whether Kershaw should have been allowed to stay in and go for what would have been Major League Baseball’s 23rd perfect game.
Kershaw’s reaction was conversely tame. He showed no signs of outward frustration, no indications of anger or discontent.
He said he would have loved to remain in the game and go for history, but also understood the realities of the predicament — knowing he was coming off an elbow injury from last season, and that he hadn’t thrown more than five innings or 75 pitches in an outing all spring.
“I knew going in that my pitch count wasn’t going to be 100, let alone 90 or whatever,” Kershaw said. “So I don’t know. It’s a hard thing to do to have to come out of the game when you’re doing that. But we’re here to win and this was the right choice.”
Roberts offered a similar explanation.
“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,” said the seventh-year manager, who has twice previously removed pitchers in the midst of a no-hitter. “For us to do that, we need him healthy.”
Kershaw, 34, wasn’t healthy the last time he had pitched a regular-season game. In his final outing of the 2021 campaign, he re-aggravated a serious flexor tendon injury in his left elbow, forcing him to miss the playoffs and nearly require Tommy John surgery.
