Photo by Keith Allison 
On this date (April 21) in 2012, the White Sox’ Philip Humber threw what is arguably the most unlikely perfect game in MLB to date – as his White Sox topped the Mariners 4-0 in Seattle. In the game, Humber fanned nine and did not reach a three-ball count on any batter until the bottom of the ninth, when he recorded a pair of swinging strikeouts on 3-2 pitches.
Why does BBRT see this “perfecto” as so unlikely? For one thing it was the only complete game in Humber’s eight-season MLB career. In addition, if you look at his overall numbers, his 15 career wins (versus 23 losses) are the fewest career victories of any of MLB’s 23 perfect game pitchers – and his 5.11 career earned run average is the highest among those hurlers. (See chart at the end of this post.) Further, in that 2012 season, Humber went 5-5 with a 6.44 ERA.
As long as we are on the topic of perfect games, here are a few additional tidbits.
- No pitcher threw fewer pitches than the Indians’ Addie Joss, who needed just 74 pitches to complete nine perfect frames against the White Sox in a 1-0 win on October 2, 1908. Notably, Joss may not have had the best “stuff” from the mound that day. Ed Walsh, who started and tossed an eight-inning complete game for the White Sox gave up just one run on four hits – while fanning 15 batters to Joss’ three.
- A little competition is apparently a solid motivator. Eight of MLB’s 23 perfect games have ended in a 1-0 score – the most common perfect-game outcome.
- Eleven perfect games have seen the winning pitcher strike out ten or more batters – with Sandy Koufax (September 9, 1965) and Matt Cain (June 13, 2012) sharing the record at 14 whiffs.
- The most pitches thrown in a perfect game is 125 – by the Giants’ Matt Cain in his 10-0 perfect-game win over the Astros on June 13, 2012. The high pitch count is mainly attributable top Cain’s 14 strikeouts (he only went to a three-ball count on four batters in the game). The Giants’s ten tallies, by the way, are the most ever by a team in a game in which their starter was perfect.
- John (Monte) Ward (perfect game on June 17, 1880) appeared as a pitcher in just seven of his 17 MLB seasons and in just 293 of his 1,827 MLB games. He also appeared at 2B, SS, 3B and OF.
- Charlie Robertson holds the record for tossing a perfect game the earliest in his career. His April 30, 1922 perfect outing came in just his fourth career game and third career start.
- Since 1900, the largest attendance record at a perfects game is 64,519 – for Don Larsen’s perfecto in the 1956 World Series. The smallest recorded crowd at a perfect outing is 8,375 for Mike Witt’s perfect game (for the Angels) on September 30, 1984.
- The youngest pitcher to toss a perfect game is John Ward, who was just twenty when he fashioned a perfect game for the Providence Grays (a 5-0 win over the Buffalo Bisons) on June 17, 1880.
- The oldest pitcher to complete a perfect outing was 40-year-old Randy Johnson (May 18, 2004).
- Catfish Hunter had three hits and three RBI at the plate the day he retired 27 consecutive batters from the mound (May 8, 1968).
- Len Barker (May 15, 1981) threw the first perfect game with a designated hitter in the lineup.
- David Cone (Yankees verso Expos – July 18, 1999) threw the first perfect game in inter-league play.
Baseball Roundtable Disclaimer: The MLB records referenced in this (and previous) posts have the potential to change as Major League Baseball recognizes and incorporates Negro League records from 1920-46 into the MLB record book.
Primary Resources: Baseball-Reference.com; Baseball-Almanac.com; MLB.com
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