On July 23, 2009, Mark Buehrle of the Chicago
White Sox becomes just the eighteenth pitcher to throw a perfect game in
Major League Baseball history, defeating the Tampa Bay
Rays 5-0.
Buehrle would join Lee Richmond, Monte Ward, Cy Young, Addie
Joss, Charlie Robertson, Don Larsen, Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax, Catfish Hunter,
Len Barker, Mike Witt, Dennis Martinez, Kenny Rogers, David Wells, David Cone,
and Randy Johnson as pitchers to have thrown a perfect game in the Major
Leagues.
Since Buehrle threw the perfect game five more pitchers
including
Dallas Braden, Roy Halladay, Phillip Humber, Matt Cain and Felix Hernandez have achieved it.
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 comes from the Chicago
White Sox and New York Yankees who have had three perfect games pitched each. 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.
2012 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.
As of Monday, July 22, Buehrle is now pitching for the
Toronto Blue Jays and has a 5-7 record in 20 starts with a 4.83 ERA in 123
innings pitched with 82 strikeouts and 33 walks.
So far in Buehrle’s career he has been an All-Star four
times, including back-to-back appearances in 2005 and 2006. He was a Gold Glove
winner four times, including four consecutive times from 2009-2012.
He was also fifth in Cy Young voting in 2005, when he has a
16-8 record in 33 starts with a 3.12 ERA with 149 strikeouts and just 40 walks.
Buehrle’s career numbers over 15 seasons are 196 wins and
148 losses in 474 games, 449 starts, with 29 complete games, nince shutouts and
one perfect game. He has a total of 1,738 strikeouts compared to just 690 walks
in 3,015 innings pitched.
Twice Buehrle has led the league in innings pitched, in 2004
and 2005 when he pitched 245.1 innings and 236.2 innings respectively.
His best year for wins was 2002 when he won 19 games and
lost just 12 in 34 starts, that year he had five complete games with two
shutouts.
Check out the video below of the final three outs from Buehrle's perfect game:
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