Clayton Kershaw was pulled after the 7th inning of a perfect game, and having 13Ks

The inquiring question that has been on many baseball minds recently was why Dodgers manager Dave Roberts removed Clayton Kershaw from his perfect game? If you haven’t heard yet, Kershaw put on a pitching clinic in his first start against the Twins on Wednesday, striking out 13 batters on 80 pitches and 0 hits.

But his afternoon was ended after Dave Roberts summoned left-handed reliever Alex Vesia to start the eighth inning. Dave Roberts explained he didn’t want to risk injury to his ageing ace pitcher, but let me explain why he should have let this one slide just for the sake of history.

Clayton Kershaw has won three National League Cy Young Awards, one N.L. Most Valuable Player Award and a World Series in a near-certain Hall of Fame resume. But Kershaw has never thrown a perfect game, and at his age, this was probably his best shot.

There have been only 23 perfect games in MLB history, and none since Seattle’s Félix Hernández did it against Tampa Bay on Aug. 15, 2012. To see Clayton Kershaw add his name to that list would have been awesome for the fans who followed his Hall of Fame career.