When Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw threw his no-hitter against the Colorado Rockies on June 18, 2014, it was not only the first no-hitter at Dodger Stadium since Ramon Martinez no-hit the Florida Marlins on July 14, 1995, but it also happened to be the first no-hitter that I personally witnessed live and in person.

This may seem a bit odd for a 61-year-old Dodger fan who has also been a season ticket holder for almost two decades and who misses fewer than five home games per season, but it’s the cold, hard and painful truth. As such, Kershaw’s no-hitter was one of the greatest moments in this old Dodger fan’s life, and because I was blessed to have covered this game from the Vin Scully Press Box for ThinkBlueLA, my son was sitting in my season seats in the Left Field Pavilion along with my daughter, who had flown into town from New York earlier that very day for a week-long visit.

With this strikeout of Rockies left fielder Corey Dickerson, Kershaw became the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter at Dodger Stadium in 19 years. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Even though Kershaw’s no-no has been ranked as the most dominate no-hitter in modern baseball history by ‘Game Score‘ and was but a Hanley Ramirez throwing error away from becoming baseball’s 24th prefect game, it was not the only near perfect game to be tossed by a Dodger at The Ravine.

The date was July 7, 2008 – three weeks before the arrival of Manny Ramirez to L.A. – and the Dodgers were facing the Atlanta Braves. On the mound for the Dodgers was then 36-year-old Japanese right-hander Hiroki Kuroda, who was 4-6 on the season with a solid 3.73 ERA.

As the game was unfolding, many of the 39,896 in attendance were oblivious to the fact that Kuroda was on his game that night – I mean really on his game. In fact, not only had the extremely popular Osaka, Japan native not allowed a base runner through the first seven innings (yes, he was throwing a perfect game) but he hadn’t allowed a three-ball count to any Braves batter to that point.

As fate would have it, there was a Braves fan sitting directly behind me who, like many in the ballpark, was completely unaware of what he was witnessing. All he knew was that his Braves were down 3-0 (thanks to a Nomar Garciaparra two-run home run in the fifth inning) as the top of the eighth inning began, with the always-dangerous Mark Teixeira leading off the inning. Kuroda had struck Teixeira out in the second inning and got him to ground out to first base in the fifth inning, so Kuroda was confident on how to pitch to the Braves slugger.

“My main concern was that [Teixeira] was the leadoff hitter in that inning, it was a 2-2 count and I didn’t want to walk him because I didn’t have that big of a lead,” Kuroda said through an interpreter after the game. “I was concentrating more on not allowing any runs. I wasn’t really nervous, but I felt the pressure from the fans because they were expecting something big.”

Teixeira lined Kuroda’s next pitch, a slider that was a little too high in the zone, into the right field corner for a stand-up double, thus ending Kuroda’s bit for perfection and his no-hitter. And although Dodgers catcher Russell Martin was bummed that Kuroda has lost his shot at baseball immortality, he was extremely impressed with the right-handers complete game performance.

“Teixeira’s first at-bat he swung over a slider, but the pitch he hit was a little bit higher in the zone than that one,” Martin told reporters. “But you’ve still got to give credit to Teixeira for putting a good swing on it. As soon as he hit it and I heard the sound, I kind of put my head down. There went the perfect game, but at that point, you’ve still got to win the game. It was an awesome performance.”

Teixeira’s double would be the only hit and the only base runner allowed by Kuroda, who finished the 3-0 complete game shutout without allowing a three-ball count to any of the 28 batters he faced. It was the single-most dominating pitching performance I had ever witnessed in person – until June 18, 2014.

Kuroda’s near perfect game on July 7, 2008 was without question the finest pitching performance of his seven-year MLB career.
(Photo credit – Kevork Djansezian)

As to be expected, the Braves fan sitting behind me cheered loudly when Teixeira got the Braves only hit. In fact, he actually became a bit obnoxious about it – at least until I pointed out to him that Kuroda had a perfect game going to that point (and after that point) and that Teixeira’s hit had turned his potential eBay golden nugget ticket stub into a worthless piece of paper. He looked at me with a confused expression on his face, turned and looked at the line score on the jumbotron, and the light finally came on. “Oh wow, he had a perfect game going,” said the now somewhat embarrassed Braves fan, who remained silent for the remainder of the game.

Ironically, Kuroda had a near-identical pitching performance at Dodger Stadium on August 30, 2010 when he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Kuroda’s bid for that no-hitter was broken up on a single off the bat of extremely unpopular Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino which, of course, drew prolonged boos from the 44,896 Dodger fans in attendance that night. In contrast, Kuroda received an equally prolonged standing ovation as he exited the game one batter later.

On Friday it was announced that Kuroda was retiring from Major League Baseball to return home to Japan, where he will once again pitch for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of the Nippon Baseball League. And while Kuroda will be greatly missed by both Dodger and Yankee fans alike, he can hold his head high as he returns home having finished his MLB career with an even 79-79 record, an excellent 3.45 ERA and 986 strikeouts in 1,319.0 innings pitched.

あなたにとゴッドスピード – 素晴らしい思い出、弘樹をありがとう。
(Thanks for the great memories, Hiroki, and godspeed to you).