Another statistical oddity that unfolded in front of me this past week, which researchers like Sarah Langs ignored<\/a>, is that Shohei Ohtani led off three straight games at Guaranteed Rate Field\/Rate Field with a homer going back to his last visit in 2024 and 2026. Considering this fact, why fans would chant \u201cWe want Shohei<\/a>\u201d when he wasn\u2019t playing in Game 1 of the series is entirely beyond me. There\u2019s tempting fate and then there\u2019s just being dumb.<\/p>\n One might wonder why I don\u2019t have footage of the second home run, and the explanation is simple: I was stuck in The Patio, having an awful, not-succulent pregame meal<\/a>, and I thought the video on the monitor was a replay from the day before, not live footage of Ohtani homering again. Oops.<\/p>\n This flash update is not just to highlight Ohtani\u2019s homer streak (which ended with catcher\u2019s interference of all things) and Yamamoto\u2019s outings, because oddly enough, the happenings keep happening. Thankfully, I learned to stop trying to embrace my inner Vin Scully relatively early on and let the action speak for itself.<\/p>\n I have always considered myself a traveling correspondent and columnist. You shouldn\u2019t see or hear me (unless the moment is too great, as I am not a robot \u2014 see Game 7 2025 World Series Highlights<\/a>). The game is the story, not me.<\/p>\n If someone could legitimately call me an influencer, I think I would gag and die of embarrassment. To each their own, but it is certainly not mine. However, the events of the past week have put me in a reflective mood.<\/p>\n On this off day, it seems as good an opportunity as any to wind back the clock and share some insights from the road. I do not go out hunting history, because that act is a fool\u2019s errand. I like going to Dodgers baseball games. I like going to see new things. I like catching up with or meeting people I have been bantering online with for years, to finally put a name to a face.<\/p>\n Ian Fleming of James Bond fame famously wrote in Goldfinger: \u201cOnce is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it\u2019s enemy action.\u201c What would Fleming say if something happened six times?<\/p>\n At the risk of jinxing any future brushes with history, let\u2019s revisit the brushes with history that Dodgers pitching keeps having with me in attendance since I have been traveling and writing (on an amateur basis or not) for True Blue LA.<\/p>\n June 19, 2021 – Walker Buehler\u2019s reaches for the brass ring in the desert<\/p>\n When I first got started, the idea that I could be present for a potential no-hitter seemed as alien as the idea that I would eventually visit every Major League Ballpark to see the Dodgers or be at a World Series game where the Dodgers clinched a championship. On my first visit to Chase Field, Walker Buehler unexpectedly tried to grab for the brass ring and came fairly close.<\/p>\n I remember getting overly excited and acutely aware when Walker Buehler kept the Diamondbacks at bay for seven innings. He faultered against David Peralta, of all people, before eventually getting pulled for Mitch White, who coughed up the shutout. However, the cost of experience is wonder. Getting through seven innings unscathed somehow became my general baseline before I started thinking about words like no-hitter or perfect game.<\/p>\n Line before the no-hitter was broken up: 7 IP, 2 BB, 10 KFinal line: W, 7 1\/3 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 11 K<\/p>\n April 13, 2022 – Kershaw abbreviated snow day in Minneapolis<\/p>\n I have spilled plenty of ink on Clayton Kerhsaw\u2019s Snow Day in April 2022. It was cold, it snowed a little, and the Twins were flailing at everything. I remember how I was getting progressively more excited as Kershaw was perfect through five innings<\/a>, then six<\/a>, and ultimately seven, as Gavin Lux really saved Kershaw\u2019s bid and bacon.<\/p>\n And then, poor Alex Vesia was summoned into the game. The reaction from the Minnesotans<\/a> still in attendance was as visceral as anything I had ever seen in person. Seriously, who gets that angry at Alex Vesia? Unlike the majority of fans in attendance, I had and continue to have no problem with Dave Roberts\u2019 decision to pull Kershaw after seven frames, considering the lack of a true spring training combined with the weather conditions.<\/p>\n Alas, it was not to be. Gary Sanchez singled off Vesia, and he was the only baserunner of the day. Personally, a combo no-hitter or combo perfect game is not a thing; it\u2019s one person, one game. This view has evolved over time, and I get that the league views this position differently.<\/p>\n Final Line: W, 7 IP, 13 K, 21 up, 21 down<\/p>\n July 15, 2022 – Kershaw\u2019s second bite at the apple in Anaheim<\/p>\n If you read Kershaw\u2019s biography, The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness \u2014 a title I grow to hate with each passing year (the book is fine, the title needed an editor), you\u2019d be forgiven if you forgot this outing, considering Kershaw omitted when recounting 2022.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t and wouldn\u2019t, as for my money, it was the stronger start. The Twins were flailing aggressively, but the Anaheim Angels looked lost as even the mighty Ohtani looked clueless in facing Kershaw. For the record, the loud Angels fan in the background of these videos is my friend from law school, a long-suffering Angels fan.<\/p>\n If one were looking for the last truly dominant start of Kershaw\u2019s career, that balmy night with friends in Anaheim is a strong candidate. I have never claimed to be a beat writer, so I leave the day-to-day happenings to Eric Stephen and company. Accordingly, I hadn\u2019t seen another Kershaw in between that truncated outing in April. From my perspective, it was consecutive; therefore, the silent yay and golf clap after his first two innings was an acknowledgment of a perfect game just for me.<\/p>\n No one was ever supposed to know about it. Then he was perfect for five more innings \u2014 again. For those wondering, I get the impulse to root against history. I snicker that if history is not made, you generally are just at a stinker of a game, destined to blend together in the sands of time.<\/p>\n Luis Rengifo doubled in the eighth, and the late-Reyes Moronta coughed up the shutout by a solo homer to Brandon Marsh, which was the only other hit in the game, in the ninth.<\/p>\n Line before Perfect Game broken up: 7 IP, 6 K, 21 up, 21 downFinal line: 8 IP, 1 H, 6 K, 25 up, 24 down<\/p>\n August 12, 2022 – Tony Gonsolin\u2019s dalliance with history in Kansas City<\/p>\n One might wonder why I don\u2019t have footage from this moment. Unfortunately, in 2023, my original iPhone was fried, and its backup was lost before I had a chance to fully upload all the videos that I had recorded. Plus, the conditions that night were truly miserable.<\/p>\n Tony Gonsolin just after his no-hitter bid is broken up. Kauffman Stadium. August 12, 2022. Michael Elizondo \/ True Blue LA<\/p>\n Honestly, I was more surprised than anything else at what turned out to be Gonsolin\u2019s best start in a Dodgers uniform. It was horrifically muggy that night in Kansas City, a mugginess that only exceeded the following night. The perfect game bid seemed like an afterthought as Kyle Isbel drew a walk in the bottom of the fifth, and the no-hitter bid ended before it truly had a chance to get interesting with a Vinnie Pasquantino single in the bottom of the seventh. Michael A. Taylor knocked Pasquantino with a double that same frame to end the shutout.<\/p>\n Line before Perfect Game broken up: 5 1\/3 IP, 3 KLine before No-Hitter broken up: 6 1\/3 IP, 2 BB, 3 KFinal Line: W, 6 2\/3 IP, ER, 3 BB, 3 K<\/p>\n September 6, 2025 – Yamamoto\u2019s Brilliance Wasted<\/p>\n Imagine losing a game after getting 26 no-hit outs. Who would let that happen?<\/p>\n I still flinch whenever I think of this game. Not because of the no-hitter being broken up, but the ultimate conclusion. In part, I also flinch because I was mildly late, as I spent two hours in traffic trying to get pit beef before the game started. I wanted to be seated well in advance of the pregame ceremonies to honor Cal Ripken breaking Lou Gehrig\u2019s record, and sadly, I was not.<\/p>\n The only time my blood pressure rose for this one was after Yamamoto got the 26th (and final) out. Once the ball sailed out, my thoughts turned to the Dodgers\u2019 bullpen, and I wondered if they were capable of getting one final out.<\/p>\n The fans around me were annoying that night. The Baltimore fans, apart from my friend extoling Tanner Scott to remember his roots, would not shut up about the no-hitter starting in the fifth inning. The Dodgers fans near me did not realize there was a potential no-hitter until the seventh inning and then proceeded to not shut up about it.<\/p>\n Spending the game with a friend and meeting friends afterward<\/a> took a lot of the sting off of this one. I always wondered how I would have fared had I been alone that night.<\/p>\n Line before No-Hitter Broken Up: 8 2\/3 IP, 2 BB, 10 KFinal Line: ND, 8 2\/3 IP, H, ER, 2 BB, 10 K<\/p>\n![\"Tony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Gonsolin-KC.jpg\"\/)
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