Clayton Kershaw gets pulled after 7 perfect innings — and only 80 pitches — in season debut for Los Angeles Dodgers

MINNEAPOLIS — Clayton Kershaw was in prime form — call it perfect — in his season debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers, leaving no concern about his health after facing no resistance from the Minnesota Twins.

When the time came for manager Dave Roberts to relieve him, Kershaw didn’t put up a fight either.

Kershaw took a perfect game through seven innings until he was pulled after 80 pitches, dominating the Twins with 13 strikeouts in 21 batters during a 7-0 victory Wednesday.

“Those are selfish goals,” Kershaw said. “We’re trying to win. That’s really all we’re here for.”

Roberts consulted with Kershaw after the sixth, and the three-time National League Cy Young Award winner told him his preference: one more inning with an 85-pitch limit.

“I would have loved to have stayed, but bigger things, man, bigger things,” Kershaw said.

So on a gray, windy, 38-degree afternoon at Target Field, Alex Vesia entered for the eighth to boos from the blue-clad Dodgers fans in the crowd of 17,101. Vesia gave up the Twins’ only hit, a one-out single by Gary Sánchez.

Cody Bellinger, Gavin Lux and Austin Barnes hit back-to-back-to-back home runs in the eighth against reliever Dereck Rodriguez, who made his Twins debut.

Chris Paddack had a rough first start with the Twins, too, less than a week after he was acquired in a trade with the San Diego Padres. He lasted four innings with six hits and three runs allowed.

Justin Turner hit a two-run single in the first, Trea Turner had a sacrifice fly in the second and Max Muncy went deep in the ninth for the Dodgers, who won a 7-2 game the night before that was paused for 1½ hours because of rain and ended after midnight.

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw heads to the dugout after the final out of the seventh inning against the Twins on Wednesday, April 13, 2022, in Minneapolis. Kershaw threw seven perfect innings before being relieved in the 7-0 win. (Craig Lassig/AP)

Kershaw was plenty refreshed.

Having re-signed with the Dodgers for $17 million this year after missing more than two months in 2021 with inflammation in his left forearm, Kershaw was slotted fifth in the rotation. That unusual assignment was to give his arm more time to build up strength in light of the limited spring training schedule.

“Blame it on the lockout. Blame it on me not picking up a baseball until January,” said Kershaw, who threw a no-hitter against the Colorado Rockies on June 18, 2014. “My slider was horrible the last two innings. It didn’t have the bite. It was time.”

The breaking ball was awfully good before that, though. Kershaw threw 41 sliders — with 17 swinging strikes — with a fastball that never topped 91 mph. He struck out the side in the sixth and fanned every Twins batter at least once except Gio Urshela, who grounded out to third and flied out to right in his first two at-bats.

“He’s been pitching like that for years. He’s been having a lot of success. So he knows how to do it,” said Urshela, who hit a sharp grounder up the middle with two outs in the seventh that skidded under Kershaw’s glove as he tried to backhand the ball.

Lux, shifted to the shortstop side of second base, made a slick pickup and throw for the inning-ending out.

“Every decision I make is for the best interest of the player, their health and the ballclub,” Roberts said, “because 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. For us to do that, we need him healthy.”

Roberts has pulled a starting pitcher with a no-hitter before. Walker Buehler came out after six innings in May 2018, Rich Hill left with a blister after seven perfect innings in September 2016 and Ross Stripling was removed after 7⅓ innings in April 2016.

“Those guys make it tough on me,” Roberts said.

According to ESPN research, Kershaw and Hill are the only pitchers in major-league history to be pulled after seven-plus innings with a perfect game intact.

This was Kershaw’s 66th career double-digit strikeout game in 380 regular-season appearances. The Twins became the 27th major-league team he faced, missing only the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles. He did pitch against the Red Sox in the 2018 World Series.

Kershaw hugged his catcher Barnes in the dugout after his day was done.

“He said, ‘Sorry,’” Barnes said. “I knew it was the right call and stuff like that, but I thought we could get it done. That’s baseball.”