Fan contributions
On June 2nd, 2010, Armando Galarraga threw 8.2 perfect innings and induced a seemingly game-ending grounder from Jason Donald to the right of first baseman Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera sprinted over, cleanly fielded the ball, and accurately slung it over to Galarraga as he ran and covered first base. The ball reached first on time, but umpire Jim Joyce emphatically signaled that Donald was safe. Galarraga lost his perfect game to human error. While instant replay was a thing at the time, it could not be used to challenge the call at first base at the time. Force plays were introduced into replay challenges in 2014. Galarraga did something simple yet seemingly impossible– he shook it off. He climbed back onto the mound, got the 28th out, took his win, and went back into the locker room. Joyce also entered his locker room, asked to have a tape of the play cued up, and then watched himself make the wrong call. He was stunned. “I missed it from here to that wall,” he would later state. He personally apologized to Galarraga in front of the press. “It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked it,” Joyce tearfully admitted. “I just cost that kid a perfect game.” Graciously, Galarraga accepted his apology and embraced the umpire in their postgame talk. “I know nobody’s perfect. What are you going to do?” asked Galarraga rhetorically.
Everyone knows Armando Galarraga threw a perfect game, regardless of what MLB says, so let’s pretend it was official and look at how it compares to every other perfect game. This exercise is not meant to rub salt in the wound; it is meant to give genuine praise to an excellent performance from Galarraga. Galarraga’s perfect game is the 21st in MLB history, it also made 2010 the first year ever to have 3 perfect games, a record it now shares with 2012. Galarraga completed his perfect game in just 83 pitches. It is the 2nd least amount of pitches needed for a perfect game, only trailing Addie Joss’s 74 all the way back in 1908. David Cone is the only other pitcher to throw a perfect game in less than 90 pitches. Galarraga had just 3 strikeouts, it is the least amount of Ks in a perfect game ever, tied with 1908 Addie Joss. While Cleveland wasn’t a good team, they did have some really good hitters like Shin-Soo Choo (who got MVP votes), Travis Hafner and Russell Branyan, all of whom had an OPS above .800 and an OPS+ above 125. Galarraga basically threw a dead-ball era perfect game in 2010 against a few really good hitters. Wild.
