Multiple Dodgers Weigh In On Max Scherzer Losing Perfect Game

Three hours before first pitch between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants on Saturday afternoon, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Washington Nationals took the field at Nationals Park.

It was the start of a dominant afternoon for Max Scherzer, who carried a perfect game into the ninth inning. Scherzer not only had the Pirates down to their last out, but also their last strike before he hit Jose Tabata on the right elbow to end the perfect game bid.

While Scherzer completed the no-hitter one batter later, finishing the game with 10 strikeouts, the hit-by-pitch drew national attention. Not one to shy away from sharing his thoughts on Twitter, Dodgers pitcher Brandon McCarthy didn’t understand the controversy over Tabata leaning into the pitch with his left elbow:

looked like a totally normal reaction from a hitter to an inside breaking ball- why the hate?

— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) June 20, 2015

Meanwhile Brett Anderson doesn’t come across as forgiving as McCarthy, placing some blame, perhaps jokingly, on protective apparel maker EvoShield:

Thanks EvoShield for preventing that perfect game.

— Brett Anderson (@BrettAnderson35) June 20, 2015

Offering perspective from off the mound, Kiké Hernandez wondered why a batter should be expected to gift a pitcher a perfect game:

So…. As a hitter, you're supposed to let the pitcher throw the perfect game?!

— Enrique Hernandez (@kikehndez) June 20, 2015

Sandy Koufax threw the lone perfect game in Dodgers’ franchise history on Sept. 9, 1965 against the Chicago Cubs. Clayton Kershaw is responsible for the last no-hitter, when he threw one June 18, 2014 against the Colorado Rockies, nearly four weeks after Josh Beckett no-hit the Philadelphia Phillies.

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