Cody Snavely
It is hard to believe that on this day ten years ago, Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw threw his only no-hitter of his 16-year career.
The 2014 season was the year of Clayton Kershaw, who not only dominated the National League throughout the summer En route to his third Cy Young award in four seasons but also where the southpaw collected the 2014 National League Most Valuable Player Award.
However, on June 18th, 2014, it was a typical Wednesday start, and Kershaw would make history against the visiting Colorado Rockies at Dodgers Stadium.
The Dodgers offense, which featured star players such as Hanley Ramírez, Dee Gordon, Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, and Adrián González, jumped out early on Rockies starting pitcher Jorge De La Rosa with a two-run first inning and a five-run third inning.
The Dodgers would tack on another run in the sixth, leading the game at that point eight to nothing. Little did they know that the offense would only need one run for the whole night, as Kershaw was in the midst of one of the best pitching performances of his career.
Thanks to an early lead by the offense, Kershaw settled in early on a terrible Rockies team that finished the 2014 season in fourth place with only sixty-six wins.
Kershaw would pump 1-2-3 innings on repeat, taking what was a perfect game into the seventh inning until a Hanley Ramírez throwing error on a chopper hit by Corey Dickerson became the first base runner for the Rockies all night. Despite losing the bid for a perfect game, Kershaw still had a no-hitter alive, but it was his first time pitching in the stretch all game.
Kershaw would get Brandon Barnes to strike out swinging the very next at-bat, but the play of the game was by a young utility infielder named Miguel Rojas. Who would make a fantastic diving stop on a ground ball hit down the third base line, saving Kershaw’s no-hitter.
Kershaw struck out three of the next six batters, including getting the final out on a strikeout, to put the finishing touches on the historic performance.
Kershaw’s fifteen strikeouts remain the MLB record for the most in a nine-inning no-hitter, and many around baseball argue that it is the single greatest no-hitter as Kershaw’s line that day was nine innings pitched with fifteen strikeouts, no walks, no hits, and no earned runs on one hundred seven pitches.
The lefty would go on to dominate the rest of the summer, going 13-1 with a 1.23 ERA and six complete games from the start of June until the end of August. From June 13th until September 14th, Kershaw went seven or more innings in seventeen straight starts.
Kershaw was the unanimous choice for the NL Cy Young award and would also collect the 2014 NL MVP Award, the first pitcher to do so since Justin Verlander in 2011 and the first National League pitcher to do so since Bob Gibson in 1968.
However, the year would end on a sour note for Kershaw as the Dodgers would get bounced by the St. Louis Cardinals in the postseason in back-to-back years, and Kershaw in the 2014 NLDS, finishing with a 7.82 ERA and losing both his game one and game two starts.
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