King Felix perfect in quest for immortality
As we’ve done for all perfect games and no-hitters this season - and there have been a lot - we’re taking the historical bullet points from the moment and presenting as many interesting and unique facts about the performance as we can. Considering Felix Hernandez threw the first perfect game in Seattle Mariners’ history, there’s plenty of historic undertones to talk about.
- It is the first time in Major League Baseball history that there have been three perfect games in a single season. It happened twice in two previous years. The first time was 1880, just five days apart: Lee Richmond for Worcester over Cleveland on June 12 and then by Hall of Famer Monte Ward on June 17 for Providence over Buffalo. The second was just two years ago, when Oakland’s Dallas Braden did it to the Rays on May 9, followed 20 days later by Roy Halladay’s masterpiece for the Phillies in Miami.
- In the 57 games played at Safeco this season, the Mariners have been on the opposite side of a perfect game (the White Sox Philip Humber), had six of their own pitchers combine to no-hit the Dodgers and watched Hernandez throw the first perfect game in franchise history with Wednesday’s 1-0 win over the Rays.
- Two of the the four no-hitters in franchise history were thrown this season, with Hernandez’s perfection joining the six-man no-no by Kevin Millwood, Charlie Furbush, Stephen Pryor, Lucas Luetge, Brandon League and Tom Wilhelmsen on June 8.
- Seattle became the first team in MLB history to throw a perfect game and have a perfect game thrown against it in the same season.
- Hernandez is now 6-3 with a 2.05 ERA in 12 home starts this season, with opponents batting .199 and striking out 106 times in 96 2/3 innings.
- King Felix had thrown one previous one-hitter and four two-hitters in his career — all on the road.
- There have been 23 perfect games overall, and going back to Mark Buehrle’s for the White Sox against Tampa Bay in 2009, there have now been six such events over the past four seasons. Three have been pitched against the Rays.
- Venezuelan “King” Felix Hernandez became the second pitcher born outside the United States to throw a perfect game. Another “head of state”, Dennis “El Presidente” Martinez, born in Nicaragua, retired all 27 batters he faced for the Expos at Dodger Stadium in 1991.
- The Tampa Bay Rays, in their 15th season in the majors, became the first franchise in major-league history to be on the losing end of three regular-season perfect games: Mark Buehrle in 2009, Dallas Braden in 2010 and Felix Hernandez in 2012.
- Joe Maddon, who was ejected in the seventh inning Wednesday, has been the Rays’ manager in all three of their perfect-game losses. Only one other skipper in MLB history has seen his team go 27-up, 27-down more than once: Tommy Lasorda of the Dodgers (Browning & Martinez).
- Safeco Field, the site of Philip Humber’s perfecto in April, became the first stadium to host two perfect games in one season. In fact, the only other ballparks to witness perfection more than once in their history are Dodger Stadium (Sandy Koufax & Dennis Martinez), the stadium now known as O.co Coliseum in Oakland (Catfish Hunter & Dallas Braden), and the “old” Yankee Stadium (David Wells & David Cone in the regular season, plus Don Larsen in the World Series).
(Graphic courtesy MLB.com)
Click here to relive all 27 outs of Hernandez’s perfect game via MLB.com.
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-Compiled by Chris R. Vaccaro
