ANAHEIM, California – While Logan Gilbert’s routine between starts is strictly regulated to maximize his time in the stadium, including daily stretching, conditioning and exercises and movements that often shake his teammate’s head, he does allow some time to relax or social media.
On Monday, before going to Angel Stadium and starting his day job, he took a moment to watch videos of Felix Hernandez’s perfect match.
Since it was 10 years since Hernandez retired all 27 batters of the Tampa Bay Rays at what was then Safeco Field, there was no shortage of content on Twitter and Instagram. And Gilbert was gripped by the highlights.
“It’s crazy,” Gilbert said. “When you go through it, especially at this level, it’s perfection throughout the game. What makes it crazy to think about is that sometimes one inning is hard enough, so to do that nine times in a game and do it over three hours or whatever, it’s just crazy to think about. thinking.’
Hernandez is the last pitcher to throw a perfect game in MLB. But he was the third player to do it in the 2012 season, including two in Seattle.
On April 21, 2012, Whites Sox right-handed Philip Humber, a former No. 3 overall draft pick who had had minimal success at the MLB level, did not allow a Mariners runner to reach base in a 4-0 win. He was the 21st pitcher to achieve this feat and the first since Roy Halladay on May 23, 2010. Humber threw only 96 pitches and struckout nine batters.
About two months later, June 13 at AT&T Park, Matt Cain achieved perfection against the Houston Astros in a 10-0 win. It took him 125 pitches to finish it, largely because he struckout 14 batters.
And on August 15 on a sun-filled afternoon, Hernandez added to an already stellar pitching resume, pitching the 23rd perfect game in MLB history on 113 fields with 12 strikeouts in a 1-0 win.
“I have to imagine if it goes by like four or five innings, you start to think about it,” Gilbert said. “You start to get nervous and ready to go out again, that sort of thing. It’s just impressive to think about.”
Paul Sewald got excited when he talked about the difficulty of the feat.
“A 1-2-3 inning feels like you’ve accomplished something,” he said.
Sewald usually worked one inning at a time and can’t remember a time in his career where he made nine appearances in a row where a runner failed to reach base.
“I’m almost positive there have been fewer relievers who have done that compared to starters,” he said. “We usually only have three at a time. It’s so hard to knock out 27 Major League hitters in a row. Just think about the luck you need. Even if you throw great, and Felix’s stuff was A-plus -plus, but he still threw some balls down the middle that must have been missed once No one can even get lucky with a ball in perfect play The whole concept of a perfect nine innings game in a major league game is insane to me. It’s been 10 years without one.”
It was almost a day shy of 10 years. Rays-starter Drew Rasmussen, who was born in Puyallup and raised in Spokane, played a perfect game in the ninth inning on Sunday. But he gave up a leadoff double to Jorge Mateo to start the ninth.
There have also been other perfect game bids that ended in the ninth inning since Hernandez’s perfect game.
On April 2, 2013, when he pitched for the Rangers, Yu Darvish retired the first 26 Astros-hitters he faced. But Marwin Gonzalez grounded between Darvish’s legs and down the middle for a hit.
Later that year, on September 3, well-traveled veteran Yusmeiro Petit, then with the Giants, was one out of a perfect game when Eric Chavez hit a sinking liner to the right that Hunter Pence couldn’t quite catch despite a dive attempt.
On June 20, 2015, Max Scherzer lost his perfect game bid with two outs in the ninth inning pitching for the Nationals. Scherzer threw a slider that let Jose Tabata of Pittsburgh hit him before the first base runner.
For the Mariners, Mike Leake grabbed a perfect game in the ninth inning against the Angels on July 19, 2019 at T-Mobile Park. But Luis Rengifo led off with a single to close his bid.
“It’s always special when you can combine something like this,” says manager Scott Servais. “No-hitters are one thing and they’re hard, but the perfect game is… I don’t even know how to describe it. I think we will see another perfect game. Obviously it’s been 10 years, but they sometimes show up when you least expect them.”
Remark
- Third baseman Eugenio Suarez was out of the starting lineup for the first time since the second game of the season. Suarez played 114 consecutive games for the Mariners and in 115 of Seattle’s 116 games. “Just a day off, nothing to worry about,” said Servais. “I can’t remember the last time he had a day off. I talked to him in Texas about it.”
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