Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw Pulled During Perfect Game, and Fans Lose It

By Brian Jones

Clayton Kershaw was six outs away from making history. The Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher tossed seven perfect innings in the game against the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday. And despite only throwing 80 pitches, the Dodgers decided to take Kershaw out of the game, preventing him from joining an exclusive club. 

After the game, Kershaw said he agreed with the decision to take him out of the game due to multiple reasons, including injuries and a short spring training. "Blame it on the lockout, blame it on me not picking up a baseball until January," he said, per MLB.com. "My slider was horrible the last two innings. It didn't have the bite. It was time."

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts explained why he pulled Kershaw from the game. "I love the idea that we're preventing runs in that particular game," Roberts said. "It's not a great spot as far as the decision, ultimately, that I have to make. But I think if I can look back and I feel it's the best decision -- in the best interest of the player's health and for the ballclub -- looking out, then I feel good about it. But those guys make it tough on me. But we have good players." Kershaw may have agreed with the decision, but the fans have a lot to say about it.

Final Stats

One person wrote: "Who pulls their ace after 7 perfect innings? The manager should be investigated for tampering … By comparison, Pete Rose never did anything this suspicious."

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ESPN's Jeff Passan Weighs In

Another person wrote: "The youngest baseball fan in the world is like 81 because the game goes out of its way to ruin its own moments. It would've been awesome to watch him try to accomplish. I wasn't watching but tuned in when I found out he was close. Now I'm tuned out again. I can't be the only one."

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Prison Time?

One fan said: "The games dying and it won't be saved. If tv didn't exist most teams would be bankrupt and players would make less than hockey players. Luckily you can run a lot of advertisements during 3 hours+ games but ratings are still declining. When cable dies the MLB goes with it."

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Reggie Jackson

A Twitter user said: "The blame and criticism still lies with Dave Roberts though – he is the manager and has the final say if/when substitutions should be made. So the real issue is with the managers these days – no kahoonas to go with their gut!"

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Just One Word

One fan explained: "This is because most of the starting pitchers did not get as many pitches during spring training as they normally do. Every team has been slowly working their pitchers back into shape. If he had 3 more weeks like normal he'd still be in the game."

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New School Baseball

One person noted: "Johan Santana finished with 134 pitches Kersh only had 80. 80! Come on man. And that was the least amount of pitches he had thrown in his career, he had all the momentum in the world to get the perfect game."

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Dallas Braden

And this fan wrote: "You have to imagine he's going to get one in the playoffs now, the baseball gods have to bring justice to that."

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