April 21, 2012: Philip Humber is perfect for White Sox in only complete game of major league career
The list of 24 major-league pitchers who have thrown perfect games as of 2025 includes Hall of Famers, Cy Young winners, and All-Stars.1 One of the more modest careers on the list is Philip Humber’s. Drafted third overall in June 2004 by the New York Mets, a year after he pitched a College World Series-winning complete game for Rice University, Humber turned into a career journeyman pitcher.
His record was 16-23 in eight seasons with five teams,2 his lifetime ERA was 5.31, and his 2012 perfect game was the only time he went the distance in 51 big-league starts. He threw his final professional pitch at age 30. But in his second appearance of the 2012 season, and his 30th career start, Humber entered the record books with the major leagues’ 21st perfect game.
Humber had joined the White Sox, his fourth professional organization, on a waiver claim before the 2011 season. The right-hander went on to have the best campaign of his career, going 9-9 with a 3.75 ERA in 28 appearances, including 26 starts. When the 2012 White Sox began a three-game series with the Seattle Mariners at Seattle’s Safeco Field in April, the 29-year-old Humber had made one start, allowing one run in 5 1/3 innings to the Baltimore Orioles on April 16.
His next outing was in the middle game of the Seattle series on April 21.3 Mariners right-hander Blake Beavan set down Alejandro De Aza, Brent Morel, and Adam Dunn – who had clubbed two homers and driven in five runs in Chicago’s 7-3 win in the series opener – to open the game in front of 22,472 fans on a sunny 64-degree Saturday in Seattle.
In the bottom of the first, Humber faced leadoff hitter Chone Figgins, who grounded to first baseman Paul Konerko, with Humber covering the bag for the out. Dustin Ackley grounded out to his counterpart at second, Gordon Beckham. Ichiro Suzuki, beginning his 12th season in Seattle,4 hit a soft line drive to shortstop Alexei Ramírez to end the inning.
Konerko put the White Sox ahead by leading off the second with a home run to left field on a 2-and-0 count. It was the 36-year-old slugger’s second homer of the season and the 398th of his career.
Humber did it all himself at the bottom half of the second, striking out the side – Justin Smoak, Kyle Seager, and Jesus Montero – on 14 pitches.
The White Sox gave Humber a cushion by scoring two runs on four singles in the third. Beckham opened the inning with a line-drive single to left. De Aza failed in his bunt attempt, popping out in foul territory to catcher Miguel Olivo. Morel singled, a line drive just out of the grasp of third baseman Seager, who managed to get some of his glove on it; Beckham went to second base. Dunn flied out to Michael Saunders in straightaway center, advancing Beckham to third.
It seemed that Beavan might escape undamaged, but Konerko came through again with a line drive off the left-field wall, scoring Beckham, with Morel moving to third. A.J. Pierzynski knocked in Morel with a single between first and second, making it 3-0.
Humber made it nine up, nine down in his first time through the lineup by dispatching the Mariners in the third. Saunders led off by popout to Konerko at first. Olivo stuck out swinging, followed by Munenori Kawasaki – making his major-league debut in 2012 after 11 seasons in Japan’s Nippon Pro Baseball – popping to third baseman Morel in foul territory.
Beavan kept the White Sox within reach after their early scoring. He allowed just two more baserunners, both in the fourth: Beckham (hit by pitch) and De Aza (line-drive single to right with one out). The White Sox stranded both runners and didn’t reach base again until the ninth.
The Mariners’ second time through the order began when Figgins flied out to left in the fourth on the first pitch of his at-bat. Ackley followed with a long fly just short of the right-field warning track. “It was [hit] hard enough that I had to jump a little to get it, but I had it the whole time,” said Ríos later.5 Humber struck out Suzuki on an inside pitch in the dirt.
The fifth and sixth innings required only six pitches apiece for Humber. In the fifth, Smoak popped out on the first pitch to shortstop Ramirez between short and third. Seager flied out on the third pitch to De Aza in shallow right-center. Montero flied to Dayán Viciedo in straightaway left on the second pitch.
Humber induced two additional flies to start the sixth, getting Saunders to fly to center field and Olivo to pop up to second baseman Beckman in the outfield grass. Kawasaki then attempted to bunt on the first pitch, but Humber fielded it cleanly and his throw beat Kawasaki by a few steps to finish the sixth.
Mariners manager Eric Wedge turned the game over to his bullpen in the seventh. Rookie Lucas Luetge – like Humber a Rice University product – replaced Beavan and struck out two of the three White Sox he faced, with the third popping out to second. Steve Delabar had a similar inning in the eighth, striking out two White Sox and getting Pierzynski to fly out to left field.
After the seventh-inning stretch, Humber began his third trip through the order by striking out Figgins swinging on seven pitches. Ackley flied out to shortstop Ramírez in the outfield grass. Suzuki grounded to Konerko, who made the play unassisted.
Chicago manager Robin Ventura made a defensive change in the bottom of the eighth, subbing Brent Lillibridge into left field for Viciedo. This was Viciedo’s first year playing left6 and Ventura thought the speedier Lillibridge would be better.7 Smoak struck out swinging, then Seager hit a fly ball to left, tailing toward the line. “It ran through my mind that I would take a chance on any ball,” Lillibridge said.8
Lillibridge’s speed made the difference as he ran to the line and hauled in the ball for the second out. Montero then hit a light grounder to second for the final out of the eighth. Humber was three outs away from perfection.
Four straight one-two-three innings by White Sox batters had kept Humber’s dugout time at a minimum, but Chicago made him wait a little longer before his turn in the ninth. After Delabar’s strikeout of Ramírez made it 15 outs in a row for Mariners pitching, Lillibridge hit a two-strike pitch to left field for a single and stole second on a 2-and-2 count. He moved to third on Beckham’s groundout and scored on De Aza’s single. It was 4-0, White Sox, heading to the bottom of the ninth.
Saunders was up first. For the first time in the game, Humber went to three balls on a batter. With the count full, Saunders struck out swinging. John Jaso hit for Olivo9 and on a 0-and-2 count hit a high fly ball to Ríos for out 26.
Brendan Ryan hit for Kawasaki. The final at-bat featured extra drama. Humber had a full count after six pitches. He then threw a slider, his 96th pitch of the game, far outside in the left-handed batter’s box, getting past Pierzynski.
Ryan checked his swing, but home-plate umpire Brian Runge immediately signaled that he had swung. Ryan protested mildly as he angrily tossed his bat, giving Pierzynski the time he needed to locate the ball and throw to Konerko at first for the 27th out. Pierzynski said he had two thoughts on his mind, “Get the ball and get it to first base as fast as possible. Because if I screw it up, I’m going to be a goat forever.”10
Humber pitched 9 strikeouts, 5 groundouts, and 13 fly outs over the course of the day. He dropped to his knees in disbelief as the White Sox bench mobbed him.
“I don’t know what Philip Humber is doing in this list. I have no idea what my name is doing there. But I’m thankful it’s there,” Humber said after the game. During the outpouring of calls and text messages after the game, he was keen to see if he received any from his nine months’ pregnant wife, Kristan, to ensure that she didn’t go into labor11 when he was pitching.12
It was the first of three perfect games in the 2012 season, as of 2025 the most in AL/NL history. Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants was perfect against the Houston Astros on June 13 and the Mariners’ Felix Hernández retired all 27 Tampa Bay Rays he faced at Safeco Field on August 15.13 It was also the third perfect game for the White Sox: Charlie Robertson threw one in his fourth career start in 1922 and Mark Buehrle threw one in 2009 in his 287th career start.
As of 2025, the only other pitcher whose sole complete game was a perfect game was Domingo Germán of the New York Yankees, who was perfect against the Oakland A’s in 2023.
Acknowledgments
This article was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by Len Levin.
Photo credit: Philip Humber, Trading Card Database.
Sources
In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the authors consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SEA/SEA201204210.shtml
https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2012/B04210SEA2012.htm
Notes
1 Andrew Simon, “A Look at All 24 Perfect Games in AL/NL History,” MLB.com, September 9, 2025, https://www.mlb.com/news/all-time-perfect-games.
2 Humber pitched for the Mets, Twins, Royals, White Sox, and Astros.
3 Seattle’s team batting average was a league-worst .234, and the AL batted .255 that season. Even after adjusting for Safeco Field being an extreme pitchers’ park, their team OPS+ was a league-worst 88.
4 Ichiro would not finish the season with the Mariners. On July 23 he was traded to the New York Yankees. He had requested to be traded around the All-Star break. As luck would have it, the Yankees were playing the Mariners in Seattle that day. Ichiro received a standing ovation in his first at-bat not wearing a Mariners uniform. He lined a single into center field for his 2,534th major-league hit. Larry Stone, “With ‘Sadness,’ M’s Icon Departs,” Seattle Times, July 24, 2012: A1.
5 Bud Withers, “Perfect Guests – Humber Throws First Perfect Game at Safeco Field,” Seattle Times, April 22, 2012: C1.
6 Viciedo primarly played third base, first base and right field prior to 2012, when he moved to left field with Rios playing primary in right field.
7 Mark Gonzales, “Nervous Defense Gets the Job Done: Pierzynski Says He Was More Anxious Saturday Than During 2005 World Series,” Chicago Tribune, April 22, 2012: 3.7.
8 Gonzales, “Nervous Defense Gets the Job Done.”
9 Olivo entered the game with the lowest on-base percentage in the AL (.149) among qualified batters.
10 Gonzales, “Nervous Defense Gets the Job Done.”
11 John Gregory Humber was born 10 days later, on May 1. “Humber Wild, White Sox Lose to Indians 6-3,” San Diego Union-Tribune, May 2, 2012, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2012/05/03/humber-wild-white-sox-lose-to-indians-6-3/.
12 Mark Gonzales, Phil ‘n’ the Blanks: Once on Waivers, Sox Pitcher Now Adds His Name to History; White Sox 4, Mariners 0,” Chicago Tribune, April 22, 2012: 3.1.
13 Safeco was heavily a pitchers’ park in 2012. In a season where the average American League batter hit .255 with a .731 OPS, Safeco yielded just a .225 batting average and a .624 OPS. Along with Hernández’s perfect game, six Mariners pitchers had no-hit the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 8. As a corrective measure, for 2013 the Mariners moved Safeco’s fences closer to home plate and reduced left field’s clearance for home runs by removing a hand-operated scoreboard. Geoff Baker, “Mariners Will Move Fences in Next Season,” Seattle Times, October 3, 2012: C1.
Additional Stats
Chicago White Sox 4
Seattle Mariners 0
Safeco Field
Seattle, WA
Box Score + PBP:
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