On July 28, 1991 Montreal Expos’ Dennis Martinez pitches the thirteenth perfect game in Major League Baseball history against the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-0.
Martinez followed Lee Richmond, Monte Ward, Cy Young, Addie Joss, Charlie Robertson, Don Larsen, Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax, Catfish Hunter, Len Barker, Mike Witt in throwing perfect games.
Since Martinez’ perfect game Kenny Rogers, David Wells, David Cone, and Randy Johnson, Mark Buehrle, Dallas Braden, Roy Halladay, Phillip Humber, Matt Cain and Felix Hernandez have all achieved perfect game status.
The shortest span of time between perfect games throw was just five days between Richmond’s perfect game on June 12, 1880 and Ward’s perfect game on June 17, 1880. The longest span between perfect games is just under 24 years, between Ward’s perfect game on June 17, 1880 and Young’s perfect game on May 5, 1904.
The American League has seen 14 prefect games while the National League only nine times.
No single player has ever thrown more than one perfect game.
The most perfect games for a single team is three as the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees have had perfect games pitched. However, only two of the Yankees perfect games came in the regular season, with Larsen’s perfect game coming in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers, meaning the Chicago White Sox have more regular season perfect games.
Larsen’s perfect game in the World Series was the first and last time a perfect game has been thrown in the playoffs, let alone the World Series.
The team with the most perfect games pitched against them is the Tampa Bay Rays, with three. All of them coming since 2009 with Chicago White Sox Buehrle, Oakland Athletics Braden, and Seattle Mariners Hernandez all doing the feat against the Rays.
Last season saw the most perfect games in a single season as Cain, Hernandez and Humber all pitched perfect games in one season, the most since 2010 when Braden and Halladay both pitched perfect games.
Martinez would finish his career with four All-Star appearnces, including three consecutive appearances from 1990-1992. He was a World Series Champion in 1983 with the Baltimore Orioles. He was also in the top five in CY Young Award voting twice and in the running for the MVP award twice.
Martinez nicknamed “El Presidente” would finish his 23-season career with 245 wins and 193 losses and eight saves in 692 games with 562 starts over 3,999.2 innings pitched. He totaled a 3.70 ERA with 2,149 strikeouts and just 1,165 walks. Martinez would throw 122 complete games, with his highest total, and a season high of 18 coming in 1979. He also had 30 shutouts with his highest single season total coming in 1991 when he threw five, one of them being the perfect game against the Dodgers.
Martinez led the league in wins in 1981 with 14, while in 1991 he led the league in ERA with a 2.39 mark.
Martinez is the all-time winningest Latin American pitcher with his 245 wins, setting the record on Aug. 9, 1998 with win number 244.
No comments:
Post a Comment