Dodgers' Kershaw loses a perfect game to the Angels in the eighth inning.

Prior to Luis Rengifo's leadoff double for the Los Angeles Angels in the eighth inning, Clayton Kershaw had pitched seven flawless innings for the Los Angeles Dodgers. On Friday night at Angel Stadium, Kershaw needed just 71 pitches to retire the first 21 batters in a row. Rengifo, though, halted Kershaw's bid for his second no-hitter and first perfect game with a crisp double down the left field line.

Dodgers supporters made up a major section of the sold-out Anaheim crowd, who gave Kershaw a prolonged standing ovation after he threw his first no-hitter in 2014.

On September 9, 1965, Sandy Koufax tossed the lone perfect game in Dodgers history. There have only been 23 perfect games thrown in big league history.

The 34-year-old Kershaw is a contender to start for the NL on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium after being chosen for his ninth All-Star team earlier this month. The three-time Cy Young Award winner stunned the struggling Angels, who have been offensively poor while losing 10 of their previous 12 games, to get an early start on what is expected to be a celebration of his career.

In the first seven innings, Kershaw struck out six batters while completely throwing the Angels off guard. He recorded the second out of the seventh inning by striking out AL MVP Shohei Ohtani on a jaw-dropping curveball.

On three hard-hit balls, Kershaw received significant defensive assistance.

In the fourth inning, Justin Turner made a great throw to first after diving to catch Michael Stefanic's grounder to third. Then, playing deep in the hole in right field, Hanser Alberto made a lunging stop of Jared Walsh's line drive to end the fifth. In the seventh inning, Trea Turner completed the trio with a superb catch on another hard-hit grounder by Angels rookie Stefanic.

For the Dodgers, Kershaw started the night 6-2 with a 2.40 ERA in 11 appearances. He surpassed Dazzy Vance for third place on the Dodgers' career chart and got his 191st career victory in his most recent start.

In his first start of the year, on April 13, Kershaw threw seven perfect innings against Minnesota while striking out 13. With Kershaw's hesitant consent, the Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts ended his start, and in the eighth, reliever Alex Vesia allowed the Twins' lone single.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Kershaw is the first pitcher in the post-1961 expansion period to be perfect through seven innings more than once in a season.

In a game against the Colorado Rockies on June 18, 2014, Kershaw pitched his lone no-hitter. In the seventh inning, Hanley Ramirez's error gave him his lone baserunner, giving him a career-high 15 strikeouts.

Walker Buehler and three relievers threw the only no-hitter for the Dodgers since Kershaw's masterpiece in May 2018. the lone perfect game among the franchise's 25 no-hitters is Koufax's from almost 57 years ago.

The fourth no-hitter and the first perfect gam,e of the 2022 season both missed Kershaw by six outs. The first non-combined no-hitter of the year was thrown at Angel Stadium on May 10 by Halos rookie Reid Detmers, who blanked the Tampa Bay Rays. On April 29 and June 25, respectively, the Mets and Astros combined to throw no-hitters.

On Friday, July 15, 2022, starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers takes a moment before throwing during the second inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels.

Clayton Kershaw had a rough game that night, he understand that all games is not going to be homeruns . He planes on working hard the next game.