Clayton Kershaw's Perfect No-Hitter

People say all the time no-hitters are overrated. The reason being is usually one or two happen a year plus there are some like Edwin Jackson where they walk eight batters, hit one, yet still get a no-hitter. People revel in the perfect game with 27 up and 27 down because it is much more rarefied air. Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw added a no-hitter to his resume last night in an 8-0 victory against Colorado, and it was not an overrated one by any means. Kershaw had quite possibly one of the best no-hitters in Major League Baseball. That is said without overreaction or hyperbole.

The only reason Kershaw didn't deliver the perfect game was Hanley Ramirez had an error at shortstop. Not a walk, but an error by the shortstop. Kershaw didn't walk anyone to lose his no-hitter.  In fact, he had only one count that reached three balls all night. This means out of the 28 batters Kershaw faced on Wednesday night, only one of them saw a three ball count. For reference, that would be .03 percent of the batters. What's possibly more impressive about Kershaw's no-hitter is it came against Colorado, one of the best hitting teams in baseball. Coming into the game, the Rockies led the lead in runs, only team with 700 hits, lead in doubles and home runs. Kershaw shut them down like Jon Taffer does to a kitchen serving under-cooked chicken.

Kershaw's no-hitter also featured him striking out 15 batters, a career-high for the Dodgers left-hander. He came within two strikeouts to tying Nolan Ryan for the most strikeouts when throwing a no-hitter. Kershaw struck out every batter whom started the game at least once. Josh Rutledge was the only player without a strikeout in the starting lineup, and Kershaw dusted him with a curveball in the eighth inning. For percentages, Kershaw struck out 53.5 percent of the batters he faced last night. Additionally, Colorado has only 528 strikeouts as a team this season, the only team with less strikeouts in the National League is the St. Louis Cardinals. No one should ever say this no-hitter is overrated.

Kershaw is moving into the category of one of the best to play the game.  With only being 26 years old, he is just beginning the prime of his career. Pedro Martinez went through a stretch from age 25 to 32 where he was virtually unhittable earning three Cy Young's in four years. I don't think it is out of the question to think Kershaw could do the same thing. There was some concern this year for him with the injury to begin the year, his blow-up start against Arizona, but the last month has been masterful for Kershaw as his ERA has gone down a full run. No-hitter probably aided it a little bit, yet he is rounding into form at the right time as the Dodgers push a struggling San Francisco for the top spot in the National League West.

In the last couple years, Kershaw has became a player where if he faces your team, you have to see him. That's how Randy Johnson was in his career, same for Martinez and Roger Clemens. Right now, if the Dodgers are playing Milwaukee at Miller Park and Kershaw is pitching one of the games, I am going without question. It doesn't even matter that the Brewers will likely lose the game, it's not about the win or loss. Rather it is about watching one of the best to ever play the game and telling those you have seen Kershaw pitch a game whether he dominated your team or not. He is that special of a baseball player.

Game Score is a stat by Bill James where it values the strength of a pitching performance. Kershaw scored a 102 which is the highest in Major League Baseball for any pitcher, and the second-highest in history next to Kerry Wood's 20 strikeout game. Kershaw's no-hitter was not your prototypical one where the pitcher survives a couple walks here and there, no it was a perfect game by a pitcher with one mistake by a position player.

Charlie.