The play in Kershaw’s no-hitter

By Cary Osborne

There’s always the one.

And in Clayton Kershaw’s no-hitter on Wednesday night, Miguel Rojas was the one.

With one on and one out in the top of the seventh inning, Troy Tulowitzki chopped a two-hopper down the third-base line. Rojas, just 12 days into his Major League career, backhanded it on a short hop, his body drawing him toward the Dodger dugout. He stopped his momentum, then threw a line across his body that Adrian Gonzalez dug out for the toughest out of the game.

“Miggy made a great play,” Kershaw said. “He has great hands and once he caught it, then Gonzo picking it up on the other end, obviously it was a big play for us. I thought it was foul. Miggy stayed with it the whole way. He made a really great play, so that was definitely huge for me.”

For Rojas, it was extraordinary moment in a lengthy journey.

“When I got the callup, then I got my first base hit and then this happening to me, it’s more than a dream come true,” Rojas said. “It’s living the moment — living this life is awesome. I don’t want to go back, and that’s why I try and do the best I can to stay.”

Rojas played 725 minor league games over nine years before he was called up to the Dodgers on June 6. He traded places with Erisbel Arruebarrena in Albuquerque, the purpose being to give the Cuban regular playing time as to not impede his development.

Rojas was the dark horse in the mix for the Dodgers’ second base job out of Spring Training, despite not being remotely in the public’s consciousness. But the career .238 hitter in the minors was thought highly of for his defense, bringing Omar Vizquel-like comparisons.

His Major League debut was June 6 at Colorado, and he started at third base on June 8, the same day he would collect his first career hit. That game would bare significance on Kershaw’s no-hitter.

In nine innings, Rojas wasn’t just playing, he was studying. He noticed Tulowitzki’s propensity to hit balls down the baseline. That message was driven home in the fourth inning Wednesday, when the leading hitter in the Major Leagues lined a Kershaw offering that went just foul out of the reach of Rojas.

“I asked the umpire if it was close to the line.” said Rojas, who hit three-run double in the third inning of the game. “I realized anything close to the line you have to dive for because the umpire can call it fair or foul.”

Rojas said he was also ready for the play because the Dodger coaching staff told him to play away from the hole between third base and shortstop and more toward the line.

But he still had to make the play.

“He squared that ball really well, and just an amazing play by Miggy to get that backhand and amazing throw across the diamond,” said Dodger catcher A.J. Ellis. “They always say there are plays like that that happen (in a no-hitter).”

That was the play in what Rojas called the biggest game of his life.

“This is great not just for me, but for my family and all the people in Venezuela, for my city, they’re so happy this has happened to me after a long journey in the minors,” Rojas said. “So I couldn’t be more pleased than the way I’m feeling right now.”