Thursday, June 19, 2014

Schoenfield: Kershaw's No-Hitter "Most Dominant Ever"

I feel so lucky to have watched the last two innings of Clayton Kershaw's no-hitter last night. David Schoenfield over at ESPN.com is calling it one of the best ever:

"It was just so much fun, I can't explain it," Kershaw said in his postgame interview.

"As far as individual games go, I'll remember this the rest of my life," he added as teammates dumped Gatorade him, blew soap bubbles and did a little Irish jig.

It's a game we can all remember. It was one of the greatest games ever pitched.

His final line: 9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 15 SO, 107 pitches.

His final Game Score: 102. Here's the list of Game Scores of 100 or higher in a nine-inning game:

Kerry Wood, Cubs, 1998: 105 (1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 20 SO)
Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers, 2014: 102
Matt Cain, Giants: 2012: 101 (0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 14 SO)
Nolan Ryan, Rangers, 1991: 101 (0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 16 SO)
Sandy Koufax, Dodgers, 1965: 101 (0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 14 SO)
Brandon Morrow, Blue Jays, 2010: 100 (1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 17 SO)
Randy Johnson, D-backs, 2004: 100 (0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 13 SO)
Curt Schilling, D-backs, 2002: 100 (1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 17 SO)
Nolan Ryan, Angels, 1973: 100 (0 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 17 SO)
Nolan Ryan, Angels, 1972: 100 (1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 16 SO)
Warren Spahn, Braves, 1960: 100 (0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 15 SO)

Cain, Koufax and Johnson threw perfect games. The Game Score method doesn't subtract points for the error, only for walks, hits and runs allowed. By this measure, you can argue that Kershaw just threw the second-most dominant game in baseball history. You can debate, factor in the opponent, the prevalence of strikeouts in today's game. Still. No hits, no walks, 15 K's, only 107 pitches. Koufax threw 113 pitches in his perfect game. Cain threw 125. Johnson threw 117.

There have been others to lose perfect games due to a single error. Jonathan Sanchez of the Giants lost his in 2009 when Juan Uribe made an error in the eighth inning. Terry Mulholland of the Phillies lost his in 1990 on a seventh-inning error by Charlie Hayes, although he then induced a double play to still end up facing the minimum 27 batters. Jerry Reuss, Dick Bosman, Bill McCahan and Walter Johnson also lost perfect games due to an error.

So maybe the record books won't list this game as one of the 23 perfect games in major league history.

We'll have to settle for simply maybe the best ever.

11 comments:

Dusty Baker said...

Kid K didn't throw a single ball to the last six batters - all strikes.

Hideo Nomo said...

The Rockies have been no-hit three times in their relatively short existence. Dodgers are responsible for two of the three.

QuadSevens said...

Once at home and once away. Once from a righty and once from a lefty. Good balance.

Nostradamus said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Franklin Stubbs said...

All we need now is to get a game moved to a neutral site so Wilson can throw one shooting the ball directly and exclusively out of his arse, and we'll have the elusive trifecta.

Franklin Stubbs said...

Also, a hearty what-the-ever-loving-fuck to you, Engerland.

Neeebs (The Original) said...

Maybe I'm getting old, but I have no clue what Stubbs just said in his last two posts.

Neeebs (The Original) said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Franklin Stubbs said...

Correlation does not imply causation, brother Neeebs

MR.F said...

I actually watched the no-hitter. Most of it. I just randomly felt like watching a Dodgers game. Been forever since I watched one.

Orel said...

You picked a good one