Better Than Perfect

I waited 18 years for the Dodgers to throw a no-hitter after Hideo Nomo's no-hitter in 1996.  Josh Beckett's no-hitter was awesome.  I only had to wait three and a half weeks for another one.

The Dodgers put this picture on Facebook early in the game:

Topanga and Cory

And immediately I thought of my favorite episode of Boy Meets World.  It was the third episode of the series.  Cory's father wakes him up to see the end of a no-hitter on the west coast (against the Dodgers actually) and then he falls asleep during a test the next day and fails.  Cory's father argues with Mr. Feeny.  It's my favorite episode because Cory's father is exactly the father I would want to be and Mr. Feeny is exactly the teacher I would want to be (especially at the end when he explains to Cory that his father did the right thing).  I was planning to show my class that episode today to celebrate, but it was a crazy schedule so maybe tomorrow.

With Clayton Kershaw pitching, I figured it might be the night that staying up late would be totally worth it.  Last year I went to Philadelphia to see Kershaw pitch because I didn't want to take the chance that I'd miss his first no-hitter (see that link for links to other posts about how much I love Kershaw).  That night, he took a no-hitter into the fifth, but it was not to be.  I've predicted that Kershaw would pitch one for a long time, even though the following pitchers never pitched a no-hitter:

Greg Maddux
Roger Clemens (a cheater, so I'm happy he never threw one)
Steve Carlton
Tom Glavine
John Smoltz
Pedro Martinez (although he was once perfect through nine and lost it in the tenth)
Tim Hudson
CC Sabathia (Hudson and Sabathia are the only active pitchers with 200 wins, they still have a chance)

So plenty of really good to great pitchers never did what Homer Bailey (career:  56-48, 4.29 ERA) has done twice.  But I know one was coming for Kershaw at some point.  And I didn't want to miss it.  Being a fan of a west coast team isn't easy when you're living on the east coast.  During the week, the Dodgers start almost all of their home games at 10:10.  The good thing about being a teacher is that it doesn't matter how late I go to sleep for two plus months of the year.  But for the rest of the season, I have to be smart about how much west coast baseball I watch.  So my policy is pretty simple for weeknights in April, May, and June:  I'll watch games on the west coast when Kershaw is pitching.  For other games, I'll usually catch a little bit of the game (especially if I'm staying up for NBA or NHL playoff games that start at 8:00 or 9:00), but I don't need to watch every inning of a game started by Dan Haren in May.  When we get to September, it really depends on how the pennant race is going.

So last night, I took a nap and set my alarm for 10:05.  My mental alarm was ready and I woke up five minutes before my phone alarm went off.  And then I had a Summer Ale in my Dodgers pint glass and watched Clayton Kershaw pitch the best game of his career.  Sometimes I have trouble staying up (whether or not I take a nap before the game).  Last night I was good to go for the most part.  I did doze off once or twice while the Dodgers were batting.  They had a couple of long innings at the plate.  I totally missed Miguel Rojas's bases loaded double to make it 7-0.  But by the fifth inning or so when the no-hitter was becoming a legitimate possibility, I was not dozing off again.

By the fourth inning, the Dodgers were up 8-0.  The game was decided.  Either in the fourth or fifth inning, I started thinking about when Hanley Ramirez should come out of the game.  He's been horrendous in the field all year long and he hurt his finger the night before.  I decided after the sixth inning.  Unfortunately, Don Mattingly waited an inning longer and Hanley Ramirez's error in the seventh messed up the perfect game.  Miguel Rojas made an excellent play to field a hard hit ball down the line and throw the runner out at first to save the no-hitter.  That was the only play in the whole game with a particularly high degree of difficulty.  The Rockies only put 13 balls in play all game long.  Last night, I was just waiting for it to happen.  In other no-hitters or near no-hitters, I was kind of waiting for the pitcher to lose it and I would be surprised if he didn't.  Last night (especially the last couple of innings), the Rockies had no chance.  There was one ball that was hit hard, but foul (but as on the guys on MLB Network pointed out, it was on a pitch that you just weren't going to hit fair).  I was talking to a parent at school today and he said that Kershaw could have pitched 15 innings and the Rockies weren't going to get a hit.  It was so awesome to see him finish it off.  Just before the last out was made, A.J. Ellis chased a foul ball and crashed into the low fence by the Dodgers' dugout.  You could tell how much he wanted Kershaw to do it.  But perhaps it was better that he couldn't get to that ball.  It was appropriate for Kershaw to finish it off with a strikeout.

Finishing it off in the ninth

"Got 'em!  He's done it!" -Vin Scully

Clayton Kershaw has always had a great curveball.  Last night it was the best I've ever seen it.  After going back and watching all 27 outs, I didn't really appreciate how good his slider was last night also.  I've talked about the role of luck in no-hitters, but Kershaw didn't need much luck.  He was just dominant.  More on that in a minute.

There were a few nice things about this no-hitter compared to Beckett's (which was also awesome).  I've already covered how much I love Kershaw.  Besides how much I love the way he pitches, he's a Dodger.  When people think of Josh Beckett ten years from now, they'll think of him with the Marlins or Red Sox.  Also, unlike Beckett's no-hitter, Kershaw did it at home.  The crowd was great (46,069).  And Vin Scully got to call this one.  I've heard Vin's call of the end of Sandy Koufax's perfect game and it was awesome to hear Vin Scully call a no-hitter by the best Dodger pitcher since Koufax.  Vin Scully has called 7% of the no-hitters and 13% of the perfect games in baseball history.  Now he just needs to call another World Series championship for the Dodgers.  And finally, this win brought the Dodgers to within four games of first place.  Not that long ago they were nine and a half out.  The race is on.

After the game, I stayed up and watched some of the coverage.  The game ended just before 1:10, but the Extra Innings package stayed with the broadcast for the on field interview with Kershaw.  Then I watched some of MLB Network's coverage probably until about 1:30.  When I finally went to bed, I couldn't fall asleep.  It reminded me of trying to go to sleep after the Jets came back to beat the Dolphins on Monday night in 2000 (still my favorite NFL regular season game ever).  I probably fell asleep sometime between 2:00 and 3:00 for a little nap before my alarm went off at 5:15.  I wore my Clayton Kershaw jersey to work today over my shirt and Dodger tie.  I played the highlights for my kids, but I didn't get to the Boy Meets World episode.  Hopefully tomorrow.

Before last night, I had seen Clayton Kershaw's best performance in person (there are other contenders, but the fact that it was scoreless going into the bottom of the 8th and he hit the home run to give the Dodgers the lead put it at the top of the list for me).  I can't say that anymore.  

Here's an interesting question:  Was it the best regular season game ever pitched?  That thought didn't cross my mind until I started doing some reading this morning.  Kershaw had the second highest game score of all time last night (102).  Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game was the best of all time (105).  If you're limiting debate to those two games, you could make the argument either way.  Wood allowed the same number of baserunners (1) and struck out five more.  He also did it in a tight game (2-0), unlike Kershaw.  Kershaw threw fifteen fewer pitches, the one baserunner he allowed wasn't his fault (in essence he got 28 outs and Wood got 27), and he had to deal with the pressure of the perfect game/no-hitter whereas Wood gave up a hit in the third inning.  In my opinion, the game score measure overvalues the strikeout.  Strikeouts are good because a batter is much less likely to reach base if he strikes out than if he puts the ball in play anywhere, but they also increase pitch counts.  I'd rather throw fewer pitches and get quicker outs.  I'm giving the nod to Kershaw over Wood for throwing the no-hitter and doing it with fifteen fewer pitches (very biased, I know).

So was it the best regular season game ever pitched?  The easy answer is to put any perfect game ahead of all others.  But consider this:  Kershaw had the most strikeouts ever in a no-hitter without allowing a walk.  Like I mentioned before, he pitched well enough to get 28 out of 28 batters out and pitchers who pitched perfect games pitched well enough to get 27 out of 27 batters out.  Here's my answer:  perfect games and games pitched just as well as a perfect game (Kershaw isn't the first to miss a perfect game without allowing a walk) are equal.  Kershaw won't go down in history as being one of a small group to throw a perfect game, but he was every bit as good.  It's kind of like Armando Galarraga.  If you look up perfect games, you won't find him on the list, but if you remember the game he pitched on June 2, 2010, he was perfect that night even if the umpiring wasn't.  Clayton Kershaw was perfect last night even if the Dodgers weren't.