Rangers ownership was in limbo. Beset by financial problems, Tom Hicks was seeking to sell. He had a deal worked out with Chuck Greenberg, a minor-league owner from Pittsburgh, and Nolan Ryan, the Hall of Famer and Rangers team president. Although they acted like owners on Opening Day, the deal wasn’t yet complete. “Good things are worth waiting for,” Greenberg said. “It’s been a long process and another few weeks really won’t make any difference at all.”1

The Rangers had on-field issues. In March Sports Illustrated broke the story that manager Ron Washington had used cocaine during the 2009 season. He had admitted the one-time use to the Rangers and had failed a drug test. “I did make a mistake and I regret that I did it. I am really embarrassed and I am really sorry,” he said.2 He also admitted that he had used marijuana and amphetamines during his playing career. The Rangers retained him as manager. “He came forward and said he would resign. He understood the consequences. … We felt like he was sincere and forthright,” Ryan said.3

On top of all that, the Rangers had their worst spring ever, finishing 10-19-1. Ryan also heaped pressure on the team, predicting that they would win 92 games. “I just feel like it is a reasonable figure. … I don’t believe I’m just pulling a figure out of the sky,” he said.4 “We all think we’re going to have a pretty good year,” pitcher Scott Feldman said.5

Toronto had a new general manager, Alex Anthopolous, who had begun to rebuild the Blue Jays. He knew that in the existing climate Toronto could not compete with division rivals New York and Boston. He started his tenure by trading ace Roy Halladay to Philadelphia. That meant that Toronto would have someone other than Halladay start on Opening Day for the first time since 2002. A week before the season began, outfielder Adam Lind signed a four-year, $18 million contract extension. This was the beginning of Anthopolous’s plan to sign the team’s young stars to longer contracts.

The Rangers sold several hundred standing-room tickets for the Monday afternoon game. The beyond-capacity crowd of 50,299 watched Dallas Cowboys hero and Football Hall of Famer Roger Staubach throw out the first pitch. Ryan said the fastball over the plate was one of the best first pitches he’d ever seen.6

The Rangers started Feldman, who had opened the previous season as the long man in the bullpen. After shifting to the rotation, Feldman had gone 17-8, earning a three-year, $13.9 million contract and the Opening Day start. Things didn’t go well, though, as with two out in the first Lind singled and Arlington native Vernon Wells homered for a quick 2-0 lead. In the third inning Lind homered, making it 3-0.

The score stayed that way into the seventh inning because of the brilliance of Blue Jays starter Shaun Marcum. With Halladay gone, Marcum led an inexperienced rotation into the season, despite having missed all of 2009 after elbow surgery. Now he was back and raring to go. “My arm feels great. My legs feel like they’re underneath me,” he said before the game.7 He followed that promise by taking a no-hitter into the seventh, often throwing changeups in fastball counts to keep the hitters off-balance.

Marcum tired, though, and in the seventh Josh Hamilton walked, then Vladimir Guerrero singled to break up the no-hitter. The next batter, Nelson Cruz, homered into the Rangers bullpen to tie the game. “The home run he hit was a good pitch. Give him credit for getting wood on it and getting it up in that jet stream,” Marcum said.8

In the top of the eighth Neftali Feliz relieved Feldman and promptly set things on fire. A walk and a double put runners on second and third, so Washington opted to intentionally walk Lind and load the bases for Wells. Wells singled to left, giving Toronto the lead again. Darren Oliver came in for Feliz, and kept it to a one-run game with a strikeout and fly out.

The game went to the bottom of the ninth with the score still 4-3, and Toronto brought in Jason Frasor to close it out. The first batter, Michael Young, doubled, but Hamilton struck out. Guerrero singled, with second baseman Aaron Hill making a diving stop to prevent Young from going any farther than third. Cruz came through once more, blooping a double down the right-field line, which scored Young with the tying run and moved Guerrero to third. Chris Davis was intentionally walked to load the bases. Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia then singled over the drawn-in outfield to score pinch-runner David Murphy with the winning run. “It was an unbelievable feeling. I’ve never done that before,” Saltalamacchia said after being mobbed by his teammates at first base.9

Ron Washington talked about resilience, a trait that would follow the team through the season. “We showed our character out there,” Washington said. “We got no-hit for six … but they played nine innings. They never quit.”10 The Rangers went on to comfortably win their division, and at 90-72 they were two wins shy of Ryan’s prediction. They finished by winning the American League pennant, but lost the World Series in five games to San Francisco.

“What a way to start the season,” Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. “We start with almost a no-hitter and it leads to a loss.”11 It was perhaps indicative of the seasons to come, a high point followed by a low. They finished 85-77, a 10-game improvement over the prior year, but still 11 games back in the division. Their plan to rebuild then took hold, and it would take another five years for them to win that many games again.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TEX/TEX201004050.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2010/B04050TEX2010.htm

Notes

1 “Greenberg Attends Rangers Opener,” Brownsville (Texas) Herald, April 6, 2010: B4.

2 “Rangers Manager Ron Washington Tested Positive for Cocaine Last July,” Sports Illustrated, https://si.com/mlb/2010/03/17/washington, accessed January 5, 2020.

3 “Texas Manager Tested Positive for Cocaine,” Joplin (Missouri) Globe, March 18, 2010: 9B.

4 Stephen Hawkins, “Bar Set High,” Brownsville (Texas) Herald, April 2, 2010: B5.

5 Hawkins, “Bar Set High.”

6 “Staubach Throws Fastball for First Pitch,” NBCDFW, https://nbcdfw.com/news/sports/staubach-throws-fastball-for-rangers-first-pitch/2117236, accessed January 5, 2020.

7 “Jays’ Marcum Healthy and Raring to Start,” Winnipeg Free Press, April 5, 2010: C2.

8 Hawkins, “Bar Set High.”

9 “Rangers No-Hit into 7th, Rally to Beat Blue Jays,” Orange (Texas) Leader, April 6, 2010: 2B.

10 Stephen Hawkins, “Rangers Come Alive Late to Knock Off Blue Jays,” Odessa (Texas) American, April 6, 2010: 3B.

11 Hawkins, “Rangers Come Alive Late to Knock Off Blue Jays.”

All nine starters for the Padres managed at least one hit and scored at least one run while Will Venable and Kyle Blanks each came one hit short of hitting for the cycle. Blanks said of the team’s performance, “It definitely shows we were definitely on our game at the plate. … I believe every starter had a hit today. It’s nice to see that from everybody, and obviously it showed on the scoreboard. If every game could be like that, it’d definitely be a perfect world.” He added, “Today was just one of those special days that we put it all together.”1

Venable went 3-for-5 with a triple, a two-run homer, and a single, and scored four times. Blanks was 3-for-6 with a three-run homer, a double, and a single, and scored three times while driving in five runs.

The Padres opened the scoring off Braves pitcher Jair Jurrjens in the bottom of the second. Venable tripled down the right-field line and Nick Hundley drove him in with a weak grounder to third baseman Chipper Jones.

The Padres were up 1-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth when the wheels came off the bus for Jurrjens. Chase Headley opened the inning by hitting a double to center. Venable ripped a 2-and-2 line drive to center, sending Headley to third. With Hundley at the plate, Venable stole second. Hundley walked to load the bases. Tony Gwynn Jr. walked on four pitches, scoring Headley. Kevin Correia, who was pitching because of an injury to scheduled starter Chris Young, singled, scoring Venable and Hundley and making the score 4-0.

Leadoff hitter Everth Cabrera was safe on a fielder’s choice to second, scoring Gwynn Jr. David Eckstein flied out to right fielder Jason Heyward for the first out of the inning. Adrian Gonzalez stepped to the plate and drove the first pitch into the alley in left-center. It was a ground-rule double because of fan interference, scoring Correia and chasing Jurrjens with the score 6-0.

Jo-Jo Reyes came in to replace Jurrgens, but didn’t do much better. Kyle Blanks sent the 11th pitch of his at-bat deep into left field for a double, scoring Cabrera and Gonzalez to make the score 8-0. Chase Headley, batting for the second time in the inning, lined to deep right for a single, scoring Blanks, with Headley taking second on an error by catcher Brian McCann. Venable homered to right-center, scoring Headley ahead of him and making the score 11-0. Hundley followed with a walk before Reyes was able to strike out Gwynn and Correia to retire the side. In the inning, the Padres scored 10 runs on seven hits and an error, and left one on base.

The Padres scored three more in the fifth. After Eckstein and Gonzalez walked, Blanks sent a deep drive into the Padres bullpen in left field for a homer to make the score 14-0.

The Braves had a mini-rally of their own in the top of the sixth. Martin Prado lined a one-out single to right-center. After Chipper Jones struck out, Brian McCann singled to center with Prado going to third. Troy Glaus drove in the first Braves run with a single up the middle, scoring Prado with McCann stopping at second. Yunel Escobar walked to load the bases. A walk to Heyward forced McCann home to make the score 14-2. Edward Mujica relieved Correia and struck out Nate McLouth to retire the side for the Braves in the top of the sixth.

The Padres finished out the scoring by scoring three in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, Blanks singled to center, his third hit of the day. Scott Hairston, pinch-hitting for Mujica, singled to first. Venable grounded into a 6-4 fielder’s choice, sending Blanks to third and retiring Hairston at second. With runners on the corners, Hundley singled to right, scoring Blanks. Gwynn followed by lacing a double down the right-field line, sending Venable and Hundley home and sending Reyes to the shower. Jesse Chavez came in and struck out Jerry Hairston Jr. (Scott’s brother) to end the inning with the score San Diego 17, Atlanta 2.

Besides a single by Eckstein in the bottom of the eighth, Chavez struck out the other three batters he faced for a total of four strikeouts in the game.

Kevin Correia picked up the win for the Padres, pitching 5⅔ innings, giving up two earned runs on four hits, while walking four and striking out three. Edward Mujica pitched 1⅓ innings and Adam Russell pitched two innings with neither one surrendering a hit. Correia didn’t pitch that great a game, but when his team scored 17 runs, he didn’t need to.

For the Braves, Jurrjens pitched 3⅓ innings, giving up eight runs (all earned) on eight hits, walking two and striking out one. Jo-Jo Reyes had an even worse line; in 3⅓ innings he gave up nine runs (all earned) on 10 hits, two of which were home runs, walking three and striking out two.

Chavez was the bright spot on the pitching staff with his four strikeouts in 1⅓ innings pitched. “Today was just a bad day; I was horrible,” said Jurrjens. “Everything I threw up there was like a ‘hit-me’ ball, I guess – it was big, and everything was up. They’re professional hitters, a professional team, and they’re going to make me pay if I keep making mistakes like that.”2

Manager Bobby Cox said, “That’s the worst game I’ve ever seen him pitch.” Cox added, “He was off his mark and didn’t have control of his changeup.”3

The Padres improved to 3-4 in the young season, while the Braves dropped to 3-4.

The Padres’ 17 runs were their highest total (as of 2019) for a home opener.4

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, and Baseball-Reference.com for player and game information.

Notes

1 Bernie Wilson, “Padres Roll with 10-Run Fourth in Opener,” Desert Sun (Palm Springs, California), April 13, 2010.

2 David O’Brien, “’Horrible’ Jurrjens Pounded; Reyes, Too,” Atlanta Constitution, April 13, 2010.

3 O’Brien.

4 Wilson.

The Rockies were the defending NL wild-card team, coming off an incredible season the year before to claim the postseason spot. More success was anticipated again in 2010. Likewise, 26-year-old right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez was expected to do big things. This was Jimenez’s third full season in the majors. He had earned the Opening Day start, going six innings in Milwaukee while striking out six and walking one to get the win in a 5-3 decision over the Brewers. He won again at home in his second start, against San Diego, again going six innings, with seven strikeouts and three walks while throwing 115 pitches.

This night would be the 6-foot-5 Jimenez’s third start of the young season. Before the game, catcher Miguel Olivo approached pitching coach Bob Apodaca to say, “What will you do if I catch a no-hitter?”1 Apodaca responded that he would give Olivo $1,000, to which he replied, “Get ready to pay.”2

As the game got underway, the Rockies gave the big righty an early lead with a run in the top of the first when Troy Tulowitzki’s sacrifice fly plated Carlos Gonzalez, who had doubled and advanced to third on a groundout. Jimenez gave up a one-out walk in the bottom of the first, but got Chipper Jones on a double-play grounder to end the inning. Pitching for the Braves was right-hander Kenshin Kawakami, in his second year of major-league baseball.

Jimenez, a native of the Dominican Republic, walked another batter in the second inning and two in the third, struggling with his command early. But his stuff was so good he was able to pitch around the wildness without incurring any further damage. Jimenez and Olivo both showed some good defense in the bottom of the third. After Jimenez walked leadoff batter Melky Cabrera, Kawakami tried to bunt Cabrera to second base but Jimenez fielded the ball and threw Cabrera out at second. After a strikeout and another walk that pushed Kawakami into scoring position at second base, Olivo fired the ball to shortstop Tulowitzki, picking Kawakami off the base.

In the top of the fourth, the Rockies scored three more times. Brad Hawpe led off with a single to left. After Olivo struck out, third baseman Ian Stewart also singled to left, with Hawpe taking second. Clint Barmes popped to second, then Jimenez helped his own cause by hitting a single to center field, Hawpe scoring, then taking second base on the throw home. Gonzalez doubled, scoring both Stewart and Jimenez, before Dexter Fowler grounded out to end the inning. It was Rockies 4, Braves 0.    

The fourth and fifth innings both started with Jimenez walking the leadoff man. Still he pitched through the location problems. After 83 pitches the imposing right-hander had thrown more balls than strikes, 42-41.

When Jimenez went to the mound to pitch the bottom of the sixth, pitching coach Apodaca, trying to help him gain better control of his exploding fastball and secondary pitches, suggested that he pitch from the stretch. It looked to be the answer as Jimenez retired the Braves in order on 10 pitches. He was even better in the seventh, using only 12 pitches to retire the side. But it did not come without some drama.

Troy Glaus led off the Braves seventh with a towering drive to left-center field. At first it looked as if the ball might land in the bleachers, but a brisk wind was blowing in and held the ball up. Center fielder Dexter Fowler made an all-out sprint toward the gap. Racing 40 yards, he dove for the ball and gloved it just before tumbling to the ground.(“Play of the year, given the circumstances,” Rockies first baseman Jason Giambi said after the game.3 )

The next batter, Yunel Escobar, hit a looping liner to shallow center. Again it was Fowler stepping up on defense, charging in and making a basket catch at his knees to record the out. After the game, Jimenez enthused, “That was unbelievable. The way he dove, I was, like, unbelievable.”4 He then struck out rookie Jason Heyward for the final out of the inning. Jimenez was well aware he had a no-hitter going. “After the seventh inning I was like ‘Whoa, there’s only two innings left. I have a chance to do this.’”5

Rockies fans and players breathed easier in the eighth inning, as the Braves went down 1-2-3 in routine fashion on two groundouts and a popup behind home plate.

By the ninth inning the Rockies still held their 4-0 lead. The game’s outcome was in little doubt  — all of the drama was focused on Ubaldo Jimenez and whether or not history would be made. The closest a Rockies pitcher had come to a no-hitter up to this time was in 2002 when Jason Jennings threw 6⅔ hitless innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates.6

The bottom of the ninth started harmlessly enough, with Martin Prado hitting a 2-and-1 pitch for a short fly to second baseman Barmes. Due up next was future Hall of Famer Chipper Jones, followed by All-Star catcher Brian McCann. In talking about this moment after the game, Jimenez commented, “I was like, ‘Why does it have to be them? Can’t you guys give me a break?’ But Jones flied out to left field, then McCann could not square up an inside pitch and grounded to second for the last out, setting off a Rockies celebration.

Ubaldo Jimenez was at the top of his game that night, in what has been his best major-league season to date. Three times he hit 100 miles an hour on the gun, and his last pitch of the game was 97. He threw 128 pitches, striking out seven. He walked one batter in each of the first five innings, two in the third, to end the game with six. In McCann’s postgame comments he said, “After my first at-bat, I knew it was going to be one of those nights. His stuff was so good. We couldn’t find the barrel on anything.”

Reserve infielder Melvin Mora was the first player off the bench to greet Jimenez after the final out. “Before the last inning, I told him to go forward into the spotlight, to grab it,” Mora said. “It was his night and now he’s going to remember it forever.”  

This story originally appeared in “Major League Baseball A Mile High: The First Quarter Century of the Colorado Rockies” (SABR, 2018), edited by Bill Nowlin and Paul T. Parker. To read more articles from this book at the SABR Games Project, click here.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com.  

Notes

1 Troy E Renck, “Fowler’s Catch Saves the Day – Center Fielder’s Long, Speedy Run, Then Dive, Robs Braves’ Glaus of Hit,”Denver Post, April 18, 2010: CC-05.

2 Ibid.

3 Troy E Renck, “No-No Ubaldo! – Jimenez Becomes First Rockies Pitcher to Throw a No-Hitter,” Denver Post, April 18, 2010: CC-01.

4 Associated Press, “No-Hitter Is the First One for the Rockies,” New York Times, April 18, 2010: SP1.

5 Charles Odum, Associated Press, “Jimenez No-Hits Braves,” The Advocate (Baton Rouge), April 18, 2010: 37. All subsequent quotations in this article come from this article.

6 Ibid.

“Now that was something else,” Milwaukee manager Ken Macha exclaimed after the Brewers set a team mark for the most runs while shutting out an opponent.1 While certainly not the largest blowout in major-league history, the Brewers’ 20-run victory margin tied the previous team mark, set on August 8, 1992, in a 22-2 win against the Toronto Blue Jays. The biggest major-league win in modern times was the 30-3 walloping the Texas Rangers put on the Orioles on August 22, 2007. And before even that, an old National League game on June 29, 1897, saw the Chicago Colts stampede the Louisville Colonels 36-7.

“It was fun and it was special,” said left fielder Ryan Braun, who had three hits, including a home run and a double, while driving in five runs. “This game is really so much about failure, particularly as a hitter, that you rarely get a day where everyone is enjoying so much success at the same time. I’ve never been involved in a game like this and I likely never will be again. So, I enjoyed it and I’ll savor it. It’s one to remember.”2

“It was just one of those crazy games,” Brewers outfielder Jim Edmonds said. “You never know what’s going to happen when you step on the field. You keep playing and respect the situation. They’re trying. There’s a fine line between respecting the game and still playing the game. It’s a tough situation. We played well for three days and it showed in the overall score.”3

From the other dugout, a dejected Pirates first baseman Garrett Jones said, “It’s frustrating, to get beat like that. It’s never fun. They’re all swinging the bat really well, not missing anything. Nothing you can do about that, I guess. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team hit that well all the way through the lineup.” Collectively, even the Brewers pitchers got three hits. “Today, they just all exploded. It was unbelievable to see,” Jones said.4

The previous mark for the then 124-year-old Pittsburgh franchise for the worst loss was an 18-run margin, set twice before. The first time was nearly a century earlier, on July 11, 1910, against the Philadelphia Phillies. The other was a 19-1 loss at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds on July 14, 1955.5

“It’s embarrassing,” said Pirates manager John Russell. “We can’t give up that many runs that early and try to fight back when we’re not swinging the bat well right now. You can’t pitch that way when you’re not swinging.”6

After a 1-2-3 first inning, the Brewers scored in each of the next four frames. Prince Fielder homered off starter Dan McCutchen in the second to start the scoring. The Brewers added three more runs in the third on a three-run home run by Braun. Braun battled for a nine-pitch at-bat before homering. After three more runs in the fourth, the Brewers chased Dan McCutchen from the game. His pitching line read six earned runs in 3⅔ innings. What was remarkable in a bad way was that his ERA remained unchanged at 14.73 after his outing. “Lots of times it felt like I was throwing batting practice to them,” McCutchen said.7

With yet another three runs in the fifth, the rout was clearly on. One of the runs came on a home run off the bat of catcher George Kottaras. Already leading 10-0, the Brewers used a six-run seventh inning to pile on the runs, all off Joel Hanrahan. The inning included a walk and six hits, one of them a home run by Edmonds.

Even with a 16-run lead, the Brewers weren’t done hitting, and added four more runs in the ninth inning. The Pittsburgh crowd booed most of the day, save for a sarcastic cheer as the Brewers scored their 20th run in the ninth. Trevor Hoffmancame in to pitch the bottom of the ninth for the Brewers and got three fly outs, one to each field, to mercifully end the game. Hoffman most likely was just being given some work, as the Brewers swept the series by a combined score of 36-1.

The 35-run margin of victory tied for third most in a three-game series. The record is 40 runs held by the Brooklyn Superbas (now the Dodgers), who outscored the Cincinnati Reds 50-10 in a series beginning on September 23, 1901.

The Brewers finished the day with 12 extra-base hits: seven doubles, a triple, and four home runs. Ten Brewers batters had at least one RBI. Besides Braun and his five-RBI performance, other hitting stars of the day were Jim Edmonds,Rickie Weeks, and Prince Fielder. Edmonds ripped two doubles and a home run as part of his four-hit, three-RBI day. Weeks contributed three hits, including a pair of doubles, and scored four runs. Fielder finished with three RBIs as well. And almost as an afterthought was pitcher Randy Wolf shutting the Pirates out for the first six innings and getting the win. He left with a 2-1 record and 3.70 ERA.

“They came in and kicked our butt,” Russell said. “Whoever comes in is going to do that if we don’t pitch well. We need to learn from this game. We don’t want to do this anymore.”8 The Pirates used six pitchers, with two, the starter McCutchen and reliever Hanrahan, leaving with 14.73 and 15.75 ERAs respectively.

Edmonds came back to respecting the game in this wrap-up: “Games like these are awkward. You don’t want to keep piling up the runs but you have to respect the game, and keep playing. It was a day where everything went right for us, and everything went wrong for them.”9

The Pirates were set to go on the road next. And Garrett Jones didn’t think that was a bad thing. “For us, it’s just go on this road trip and forget about games like this,” he said. “Stay confident. Keep our heads up. And tomorrow is a new day.”10 However, it should be noted that the Pirates were a miserable 22-58 road team in 2009, and sank to lower depths with a 17-64 (.210) record in 2010 away from PNC Park. That tied the record of the 1963 New York Mets for road futility in a 162-game season.

Unfortunately for the Pirates, that next road trip included a series in Milwaukee, where Pittsburgh currently had a 21-game losing streak. Game one of that series, on April 26, went only marginally better for the Pirates: The Brewers won by “only” 14 runs, 17-3. The Pirates did rebound to win the next two games in Milwaukee. However, the Brewers won the season series 13-5. Their .722 winning percentage against the Pirates was their highest against any opponent that season.

The Brewers outscored their opponent by 10 or more runs six times in 2010. Their second-largest win was an 18-1 drubbing of the Cubs in Wrigley Field on August 2. The Brewers scored the 18 runs using only four extra-base hits: one home run and three doubles.

Milwaukee finished the 2010 season at 77-85 (.475), in third place, 14 games behind Cincinnati in the National League Central Division. The Pirates finished with the major leagues’ worst record at 57-105 (.352), 34 games behind the Reds. It was the Pirates’ 18th consecutive losing season.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Notes

1 Associated Press, “Edmonds, Braun and Brewers Batter Pirates 20–0,” April 22, 2010.

2 Howard Fendrich, “Inside the NL,” New York Times, April 23, 2010: 25.

3 Dejan Kovacevic, “Pirates 20-0 Loss Is Worst in Franchise’s 124 Years,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 22, 2010.

4 Kovacevic.

5 Kovacevic.

6 Karen Price, “Russell: Pirates’ 20-0 Loss ‘Embarrassing,’” Pittsburgh Tribune, April 23, 2010: 20.

7 Associated Press.

8 Associated Press.

9 Associated Press.

10 Chuck Finder, “Hit the Road, Hope It Doesn’t Hit Back,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 23, 2010: 34.

A native of Souderton, Pennsylvania, Moyer was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the sixth round of the June 1984 amateur draft from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Two years later, on June 16, 1986, he debuted in Chicago with a win over his hometown Phillies,2 and on August 16 tossed his first complete-game shutout against the Expos in Montreal.

Moyer won 28 games in three seasons with the Cubs before embarking on a journey that saw him pitch for five different teams over the next 17 seasons. That winding path eventually brought him home when the Phillies acquired him from the Seattle Mariners in an August 2006 trade.3 He won 16 games for the 2008 World Series champion Phillies, but when Philadelphia signed Pedro Martínez in July 2009, Moyer was bumped from the starting rotation. By spring training 2010, however, he reclaimed his spot by outdueling Kyle Kendrick for the fifth starter’s job.4

Moyer made his sixth start of the season on May 7, when the last-place Atlanta Braves opened a weekend series in Philadelphia against the National East Division-leading Phillies. He had pitched six innings in each of his first five starts, including a win over the Braves in Atlanta on April 26, and entered the Friday night rematch with a 5.70 ERA. 

The Braves arrived shorthanded and in the midst of offensive struggles. Three regular starting players — shortstop Yunel Escobar, catcher Brian McCann, and rookie outfielder Jason Heyward — were on the disabled list and their team batting average was .237.5 Second baseman Martín Prado was the only starter in the lineup hitting over .300, and all three starting outfielders were scuffling with averages below .200.

Moyer wasted little time asserting control. He retired the top of the Braves order on 11 pitches in the first inning and was even more efficient in the second. Troy Glaus singled on the inning’s first pitch but was erased on a double play grounder on Moyer’s next delivery. One pitch later, David Ross grounded to short to end the inning. Watching Moyer’s brisk work, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel remarked, “Hey man, he has a chance to get through seven innings tonight.”6

Atlanta countered with veteran right-hander Derek Lowe, who had been Moyer’s teammate 13 years earlier with the 1997 Mariners. A reliever early in his career, Lowe won 21 games for the Boston Red Sox in 2002, his first full year as a starter. He signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Dodgers prior to the 2005 season, then joined Atlanta four years later. In 2009 he led the NL in hits surrendered and entered the game carrying a 5.18 ERA.

Lowe ran into early trouble but escaped damage in the first inning. Plácido Polanco doubled with one out, and Chase Utley followed with a walk. Ryan Howard moved the runners along with a groundout, but Lowe ended the threat by striking out Jayson Werth. In the second, Raúl Ibañez and Carlos Ruiz opened with back-to-back singles but shortstop Wilson Valdéz — starting in place of the injured Jimmy Rollins — hit into a double play and Moyer struck out looking.

Moyer retired Atlanta quickly again in the top of the third, and Philadelphia’s offense broke through in the bottom half. Utley and Howard had two-out line-drive singles. Werth, who had blasted a three-run homer in the first inning of the previous night’s game in St. Louis delivered again, launching a long home run to put the Phillies ahead 3-0. The homer was Werth’s sixth of the young season.

Moyer continued to cruise through the fourth and fifth innings, aided by sparkling defense. Leading off the fourth, center fielder Shane Victorino made a running underhanded catch in deep right-center off the bat of Omar Infante, robbing him of at least a double. To end the top of the fifth, first baseman Howard made an over-the-shoulder basket catch of Ross’ pop fly drifting down the right-field line.7 Between those two defensive gems, Moyer recorded four quick outs.

The Phillies broke the game open in the fifth. Polanco, Utley and Howard all singled after one out to load the bases. Werth popped out, but Ibañez lined a single to left, scoring Polanco and Utley. Howard advanced to third and Ibañez to second on the throw from the outfield.

Ruiz was intentionally walked to reload the bases, and Valdéz followed with a groundball single up the middle, plating two more runs. Moyer grounded out to end the inning with the Phillies firmly in control, 7-0. Lowe departed after five innings, charged with seven runs on 11 hits, and his ERA climbed to 6.16. “I think we’re all kind of waiting, me included, to get turned around and get back to playing like I feel we should be,” Lowe said later.8

Moyer struck out three of the six batters he faced across the sixth and seventh innings. Brandon Hicks, batting for Lowe, struck out swinging on four pitches to end the sixth. Hicks was making his major league debut. “If (a rookie) doesn’t hit a first pitch that’s up (against Moyer), … “He’s in for an education,” said Manuel.9

Two rookie pitchers took the mound for Atlanta in the middle innings. Left-hander Johnny Venters walked Utley with two outs in the sixth, but struck out Howard to end the inning. frame. In the seventh, 22-year-old Craig Kimbrel, making his major-league debut, surrendered a double to Werth before striking out Ibañez and Ruiz and retiring Valdez on a grounder to second. Kimbrel’s scoreless inning was the first in a long career; through 2025 he had 440 saves in 16 seasons.

Glaus led off the eighth with a ground-ball single to left, just the second hit of the day for Atlanta, snapping Moyer’s streak of 17 consecutive outs. Unfazed, Moyer retired the next three Braves hitters in order. 

Moyer then led off the bottom of the eighth against new Braves reliever Jesse Chavez and was greeted by a standing ovation from the sellout crowd.10 “This kind of stuff pushed me. I enjoy this. This is what it’s all about,” Moyer said later.11 He flied out to shallow left and Chavez retired Victorino and Polanco. When Moyer emerged from the dugout for the ninth inning, the crowd rose once more.

Nine pitches later the two-hit, 105-pitch 7-0 win was complete. At 47 years, 170 days, Moyer became the oldest pitcher to throw a complete game shutout, surpassing the previous record held by former Braves pitcher Phil Niekro, who was 46 years, 118 days when he earned his 300th career win by blanking the Toronto Blue Jays for the New York Yankees on the final day of the 1985 season.12 Moyer also became the only pitcher to throw shutouts in four decades. “That’s impressive regardless of how old you are,” teammate Roy Halladay said.13

Moyer started 14 more games in 2010. He finished the season with a 9-9 record, helping the Phillies secure their fourth straight division title. After missing the 2011 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery Moyer made a brief comeback in 2012 with the Colorado Rockies, recording the final two wins of his long career. “I feel like there is plenty of time when I retire to reflect on things,” Moyer said.14 Colorado released him at the end of May, and at the age of 49, his remarkable career finally came to an end.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Keith Thursby.

Photo credit: Jamie Moyer, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for information including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI201005070.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2010/B05070PHI2010.htm

Notes

1 Moyer is one of 31 players in major-league history who have played in four decades. David Adler and Andrew Simon, “These MLB Careers Spanned 4 Decades,” MLB.com, January 7, 2022, https://www.mlb.com/news/four-decade-players-c300996490.

2 The losing pitcher in that game was 41-year-old future Hall of Famer Steve Carlton, who had made his major-league debut in April 1965, when Moyer was 2. two years old.

3 Philadelphia traded minor-leaguers Andy Baldwin and Andrew Bard to Seattle on August 19, 2006 for Moyer.

4 Rob Maaddi, “Moyer the Magnificent,” Easton (Pennsylvania) Express-Times, May 8, 2010: D5.

5 Martin Frank, “Moyer Goes 9 in 2-Hit Shutout,” Camden (New Jersey) Courier-Post, May 8, 2010: D1.

6 Matt Gelb, “For Moyer, It Never Gets Old,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 8, 2010: E1.

7 Michael McGarry, “Moyer’s Gem Latest Chapter in an Old Story,” Press of Atlantic City, May 8, 2010: D1.

8 David O’Brien, “Veteran Moyer Two-Hits Atlanta,” Atlanta Constitution, May 8, 2010: 1C.

9 McGarry.

10 Chavez was in his third major-league season in 2010. He pitched for nine clubs in 18 seasons before retiring in 2025.

11 McGarry.

12 O’Brien.

13 Gelb.

14 David Murphy, “Moyer Beats Braves With 2-Hit Shutout,” Philadelphia Daily News, May 8, 2010: 34.

The Oakland Athletics southpaw retired the first 26 Tampa Bay Rays he faced at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum that Sunday afternoon, and only the pesky veteran Gabe Kapler stood between Braden and baseball’s 19th perfect game.

With a 2-and-1 count, Braden threw a down-and-away fastball he described as “painted,” but umpire Jim Wolf disagreed. The count was 3-and-1, but in Braden’s head it was 2-and-2. Catcher Landon Powell, knowing the correct count, called for a changeup. Braden, stubbornly thinking 2-and-2, shook off Powell.

Kapler was likely looking changeup, and Braden’s fastball jammed him into grounding to shortstop Cliff Pennington, who threw over to first baseman Daric Barton to complete the perfecto.

Powell often ribs Braden for sharing his Larsen-Berraesque moment with the wrong ballplayer.

“Barty was right there so I just jumped into his arms,” Braden said. “Landon came up and he’s yelling at me, ‘You’re supposed to come to me! You’re supposed to come to me!’”1

Braden’s perfect afternoon began with a less-than-perfect morning.

It was Mother’s Day, a holiday Braden despises because of the pain it carries. His mother, Jodie Atwood, was his rock and guiding light, but melanoma took her from him during his senior year in high school. Atwood was Braden’s best friend, and she repeatedly made sacrifices so he could play the sport he loved.

Braden had stayed out late with friends the night before his Mother’s Day start, and he was a little slow getting up for a game that carried an earlier-than-usual start time. Peggy Lindsey, Braden’s beloved grandmother, who raised him after his mother’s death, dropped by the house to feed the pond fish and greet the dog, but Braden slept right through it. Lindsey called him on her way to the stadium to make sure he would be on the mound.

Braden’s pregame routine at the ballpark typically took three hours. But on this day he arrived an hour before game time, which means he didn’t get his pregame massage or stretch time, didn’t drink his Red Bull, and didn’t get to go over the hitters, watch video, or look over the pregame scouting report. His spikes were dirty, his glove was unoiled, and his hat was unstarched.

“Everything about the day was about as backward and as wrong as it’s ever been for me making a start,” he said.

But Braden buttoned up his white “Athletics” jersey, which on this day featured a small pink ribbon stitched over the script’s “c,” and stepped onto the hill.

Rays leadoff hitter Jason Bartlett quickly woke the fielders by lining an 0-and-1 fastball down the third-base line, but Kevin Kouzmanoff leaped over the bag to glove the game’s first out. Five more Rays outs followed before the Athletics got on the board.

Kouzmanoff and Eric Chavez led off the bottom of the second inning with singles, and Kouzmanoff scored on Powell’s single to left. The A’s added another run in the third inning by stringing together consecutive singles by Barton, Ryan Sweeney, and Kouzmanoff.

Meanwhile, Kouzmanoff continued aiding Braden in the field. In the third inning, he snagged a slow dribbler off the bat of Bartlett and fired to first to steal what looked like a sure infield hit. He also chased down three foul popups — one near the steps of the Oakland dugout — to keep the perfecto intact.

“He was literally everywhere that day,” Braden said.

As the game reached the midway point, Braden sat alone in the dugout and looked up at the scoreboard during a Rays mound visit. There was a zero in the “R” column, a zero in the “H” column, and he couldn’t recall issuing a single walk.

“Oh my God, really?” he thought. “I just said to myself, ‘Don’t baby it. Don’t baby it.’”

Braden thought he hadn’t been afraid up until this point, so why start now?

“Hell, you haven’t even been conscious,” Braden told himself. “Don’t screw this up by trying to be a part of it now. Just do what you’ve been doing.”

Braden’s fastball hovered just above the mid-80s, but he used 68-mph changeups — often on two-strike counts — to induce six Rays strikeouts. And the few hard-hit balls always found teammates’ gloves.

“The guy had the pitches when he needed them,” Rays third baseman Evan Longoria told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I didn’t see two pitches in the same spot the whole game.”2

With one out in the ninth, Dioner Navarro drove a sharp liner right at left fielder Eric Patterson, who took a step in before backtracking a stride and wrapping his mitt around out number 26. Kapler’s groundout followed, sending the A’s and their 12,000 or so fans into pandemonium.

After celebrating with teammates and coaches, Braden looked to the crowd for Lindsey, a regular at A’s home games that featured Braden on the mound.

“Where’s Gram?” Braden yelled. “Where’s Gram?”

Braden looked toward Grandma Peggy’s seat, but moments earlier she had climbed up onto the top of the dugout — much to the chagrin of the security guards — to watch the 27th out. Lindsey made her way down to the field, and the two locked in an emotion-filled embrace, remembering the mother/daughter they’d lost to cancer.

Braden pulled out the Celtic cross he wears around his neck to honor his mother and grandfather.

“I kissed it, and she kissed it, and that was all we needed,” he said.

Powell, Braden’s batterymate, teared up while witnessing the poignant scene.

“It was hard to fight ’em back,” Powell told the Oakland Tribune. “He’s had a lot of things happen to him in his life, and even the last few years has had some unlucky things happen to him in the game of baseball. So that was special to see.”3

Braden’s victory gave him a 4-2 record in the young season. But whatever was to come in his career, the Stockton native would forever occupy a spot on a list that numerous Hall of Fame pitchers couldn’t reach. Will that feeling ever sink in?

“It doesn’t,” he said. “It shouldn’t.”

This article was published in SABR’s “No-Hitters” (2017), edited by Bill Nowlin. To read more Games Project stories from this book, click here.

Notes

1 Author interview with Dallas Braden, January 5, 2016. All quotations are from this interview unless otherwise indicated.

2 Susan Slusser, “Braden throws 19th perfect game,” SF Gate, sfgate.com/sports/article/Braden-throws-19th-perfect-game-3264978.php, accessed January 26, 2016.

3 Carl Steward, “Steward: ‘Grandma Peggy’ gets the final word on A’s pitcher Dallas Braden, and on A-Rod,” Inside Bay Area, insidebayarea.com/ci_15052220, accessed January 25, 2016.

In 2004, Beltré’s final year with the Los Angeles Dodgers, his original big-league club, he hit .334, with 121 RBIs and a majors-leading 48 home runs, finishing second in the NL MVP voting to Barry Bonds. He then signed a five-year, $64 million contract with the Seattle Mariners. In the five seasons with Seattle that followed (2005-09), Beltré received two Gold Gloves but struggled with injuries and a pitcher-friendly home ballpark. The highest he hit for average was .276. He did not reach 100 RBIs for the Mariners, topping out at 99 in 2007.

Seattle let Beltré go to free agency and he was signed by the Red Sox for one year at $9 million. Boston’s incumbent third baseman, 2007 World Series MVP Mike Lowell, was winding down his career.1 Beltré was in need of a rebound year. He got off to a good start, typically batting fifth in the lineup.

He came into Boston’s May 26 game against the Tampa Bay Rays batting .327, ninth-best in the AL, but he had hit just three home runs to that point. He had 27 RBIs in 45 games.  

The Rays (32-14) had the best record in baseball, good for a 4½-game lead over the New York Yankees in the American League East Division. The Red Sox were fourth, 6½ games behind. Coming into the Wednesday night game at Tropicana Field, though, the Red Sox had won four games in a row and seven of their last eight. They had beaten Tampa Bay on Monday night, 6-1, and then again on Tuesday, 2-0, the Rays managing only one base hit – a fourth-inning single off Jon Lester by Willy Aybar.

Matt Garza was manager Joe Maddon’s starting pitcher in the series finale. He came into the game with the second-best ERA in the AL, 2.37, and a 5-2 record. 

For the Red Sox, manager Terry Francona’s choice was John Lackey (4-3, 5.07), who had lost his last two starts.

Neither team scored in the first inning, though Garza walked two. Lackey gave up two singles.

Beltré led off the second inning, driving a 1-and-0 pitch to left-center field for his fourth home run of the season. It landed 8 to 10 rows deep in the seats. The hit made him 6-for-14 lifetime against Garza.

The Rays tied it, 1-1, in the bottom of the second on Reid Brignac’s RBI groundout.

In the third, Garza doled out another pair of walks, to Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis. That brought up Beltré again, this time with two outs. On a 1-and-1 count, Garza threw a curveball over the plate. Beltré had to go down to get under it, dropping on his right knee as he finished his swing – a trademark finish throughout his career. He pounded the ball, lifting it to straightaway left. It was another no-doubter that landed at least a half a dozen rows deep.

His second homer of the game gave the Red Sox a 4-1 lead. They had four runs on just two hits – the two homers by Adrian Beltré.

Tampa Bay got one back in the fourth on Brignac’s RBI single, but Boston took a 6-2 lead in the top of the fifth when Pedroia singled to left and David Ortiz homered to straightaway right field – another hard-hit ball that went several rows deep. It was Ortiz’s 10th homer of the season. Beltré came up again but flied out to center.

In five innings, Garza allowed six runs – all on homers by future Hall of Famers Beltré and Ortiz. “When they need[ed] a big hit, they got it,” said Garza.2

The Rays’ third pitcher of the evening, Grant Balfour, started off the seventh. With one out, Beltré reached on an infield single, well-played deep in the hole by a diving shortstop Jason Bartlett, whose throw was just too late to catch the hustling hitter. Beltré got no farther than first base.

Lackey left after 6⅓ innings. Three Red Sox relievers followed, working a combined 2⅔ innings, allowing two hits and one base on balls.

It was still 6-2 heading into the ninth. With one out and Ortiz on first base, Lance Cormier came in from the bullpen and walked Youkilis on four pitches. Beltré kept fouling off pitches, eventually working the count to 2-and-2. He banged the ninth pitch of the at-bat to right-center, splitting the difference between the two fielders and short-hopping the wall on one bounce. He broke out of the box running and got himself a three-base hit. He hadn’t missed a third home run by all that much. Driving in two runs, he had earned his fifth and sixth RBIs of the game. Jeremy Hermida swung at the first pitch and slapped a single to right field, scoring Beltré.

Jason Varitek struck out but Mike Cameron singled to center, Hermida going first to third. Darnell McDonald doubled just over third base and down into the left-field corner to drive in both runners, making it 11-2, Red Sox.

Ben Zobrist hit a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth, for a final score of 11-3.

The Red Sox swept the Rays, a bit of payback for the four games the Rays had taken from the Red Sox in mid-April.

Beltré’s six RBIs tied a career high set on July 27, 2000, while he was playing for the Dodgers, at Coors Field in Denver. That game included a grand slam off Kevin Jarvis.

His 12 total bases in this 2010 game were the most for Boston since Kevin Millar had 12 against the New York Yankees on July 23, 2004. Millar had homered three times in that game, which the Yankees won, 8-7.3

The Boston Globe credited Beltré for his fielding, too, discussing a play in the second inning when he “raced in from third to field a bunt by Sean Rodríguez and made an off-balance throw to first base.” The Globe’s Peter Abraham quoted catcher Jason Varitek: “The guy is gifted with a great arm and he works hard at those plays every day.”4

Beltré, talking about the three-game sweep, praised the pitchers: “We played pretty good, especially our pitching staff. [They were the ones] that kept us in the game and gave us the opportunity to win.”5

At the end of the season, Tampa Bay finished first in the division, just one game ahead of the Yankees. Boston was third, seven games back. The Texas Rangers beat the Rays in the Division Series, but lost in a five-game World Series to the San Francisco Giants.

Adrian Beltré was an All-Star in 2010 for the first time in his career. He led the majors with 49 doubles, drove in 102 runs, and received his second career Silver Slugger Award. He finished ninth in the AL MVP voting. After the season was over, Beltré signed a multiyear deal with the Texas Rangers and played his final eight seasons with them, averaging .304 over that stretch and hitting another 199 home runs and driving in 699 runs – just one shy of averaging exactly 100 per year.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and YouTube.com. Thanks to Wes Singletary for assistance with Tampa Bay news coverage of the game.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TBA/TBA201005260.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2010/B05260TBA2010.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UHXV9HiS1k

Notes

1 Seattle had offered arbitration, but Beltré preferred to test the free-agent market. The Red Sox were reportedly attempting to trade Mike Lowell and in the market for another third baseman. They were also reportedly considering moving Kevin Youkilis from first base to third base. The deal with Beltré included a player option for 2011. Amalie Banjamin, “Beltre Agrees to Terms with Red Sox,” Boston Globe, January 5, 2010: C1. He chose not to exercise the option, which had doubled to $10 million due to his playing time in 2010, and declined salary arbitration. Not willing to wait, and perhaps feeling that reupping with Beltré was unlikely, the Red Sox signed Adrián González to play first base, and Youkilis was their most frequent starter at third in 2011. See, for instance, Peter Abraham, “It’s a Nice Position to Be In,” Boston Globe, December 8, 2010: C2.

2 Roger Mooney, “Rays Take a Big Step Back,” Tampa Bay Tribune, May 27, 2010: Sports 1, 3.

3 Beltré had 13 total bases in a game while playing for the Mariners against the Oakland A’s on July 6, 2007. In that game, he had a single, two doubles, and two home runs.

4 Peter Abraham, “Beltre Shows Off Power Play,” Boston Globe, May 27, 2010: C1, C6.

5 Amalie Benjamin, “Sox Make It a Clean Sweep on Tampa Bay’s Carpet,” Boston Globe, May 27, 2010: C1.

“Early in my bullpen (pregame warmup), I was hitting spots more than I have been. I felt I just carried that out there.” — Roy “Doc” Halladay after pitching the 20th major-league perfect game2

Before a Saturday night crowd of 25,086 in Miami (many of whom were Phillies fans, and others lured by a postgame concert and fireworks show), Roy Halladay, in his first season with the Phillies, was going for his seventh win of the season. The Phillies had not been scoring of late. The Mets had shut them out in three consecutive games and Philadelphia came into the game having lost five of their previous six games, four by shutout. Their National League lead had shrunk to 1½ games. And Halladay was coming off his worst start of the season. On Sunday, May 23, he had lasted only 5⅔ innings against the Boston Red Sox, yielding seven runs (six earned) in an 8-3 loss. When he was removed from the game, Doc approached manager Charlie Manuel in the dugout and told him, “I’m better than that.”3

The Marlins’ pitcher, Josh Johnson (5-1), was up to the task. The 26-year-old was coming off a 15-5 season in which he had been selected to the All-Star team for the first time. He had won his prior two starts and had not been scored on in 18 innings coming into the game, seeing his ERA shrink from 3.35 to 2.43. The two pitchers matched up well not only in ability, but in size. Halladay was big at 6-feet-6 and 230 pounds; Johnson was even bigger at 6-feet-7 and 250 pounds.

In filling out his lineup card for the game Phillies manager Manuel had some decisions to make regarding the left side of his infield. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins and third baseman Placido Polanco were injured. The replacements he chose, Wilson Valdez and Juan Castro, became major factors in preserving the perfect game.

Over the first two innings, Johnson pitched out of jams as Halladay retired the first six batters, with four strikeouts and two groundballs. It wasn’t that easy: Two of the batters in the first inning thought they had worked out walks only to have home-plate umpire Mike DiMuro bring them back to the batter’s box. The leadoff batter, Chris Coghlan, looked at a 3-and-2 pitch, and the third batter in the inning, Hanley Ramirez, looked at a 3-and-1 pitch for strike two before grounding out.

In the third inning the Marlins’ defense allowed the only run Halladay would need. With one out, Valdez, who had doubled in the first inning, singled to center field. Chase Utley then lined a ball to deep center field that was misplayed by the Marlins’ Cameron Maybin. Maybin misjudged the ball and started charging in. He reversed direction, but was unable to complete the play. The ball went off Maybin’s glove for a three-base error and the score was 1-0.4 Afterward, Maybin said, “J.J. (Johnson) did a great job of competing. Unfortunately, one play — that was the ballgame.”5

Halladay continued to have 3-and-1 and 3-and-2 counts against batters (seven during the course of the game) and still retired each man he faced. In the sixth inning, with one out, Maybin hit a roller to the right of shortstop Valdez. Going into the hole, Valdez grabbed the ball and threw to first just in time to get the out. Two innings later, Florida’s Jorge Cantu banged a low liner toward third base. Castro went to his knees, short-hopped the ball, and threw to first.

Johnson came out of the game after pitching seven innings and throwing 121 pitches. He stuck out six batters and walked only one while allowing six hits. Relievers Clay Hensley and Juan Carlos Oviedo each pitched perfect innings, setting the stage for Halladay to emerge from the visitors’ dugout for the bottom of the ninth.

“Once you think it’s possible is probably two outs in the ninth. Up to that point you obviously are aware of it, but it’s never something you think is possible. Really, once I got to two outs it felt like I had a chance. It’s not something you expect” — Roy Halladay 6

The Marlins’ last swings were taken by three pinch-hitters. Mike Lamb’s long fly ball to center field dropped into the glove of Shane Victorino at the edge of the warning track; Wes Helms struck out looking; and on a 1-and-2 count Ronny Paulino grounded to Castro. Ranging to his left, Castro grabbed the ball, spun around and threw a perfect strike to the waiting glove of Ryan Howard for the final out. The game was over in 2:13, with Halladay having thrown 115 pitches, 72 of which were strikes, to complete his masterpiece.

In the Marlins clubhouse after the game, there was some griping about the umpire’s calls but Halladay’s mastery was acknowledged by Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez. “You’ve got to take your hat off to Doc,” Gonzalez said. “That’s why he is who he is. That’s what (the Phillies) got him for.”7

Johnson was the hard-luck loser. He would go on to post an 11-6 record in 2010 with a league-leading 2.30 ERA. He was named to his second All-Star team, but would be unable, due to injury, to replicate his success in future seasons. His last big-league season was 2013.

After the game, Halladay hastened to share the credit with his catcher, Carlos Ruiz. “We felt like we got in a groove early and about the fifth or sixth, I was just following Chooch. I can’t say enough about the job he did today. Mixed pitches. For me, it was really a no-brainer.”8 Ruiz said, “His tempo was real good, so I was feeling great because whatever I put down, he was going to throw it. He would hit the spot. He was painting everything. He hit the corners.”9

Marlins owner Jeffrey Luria went so far as to offer to give Halladay the pitching rubber as a memento. There was one minor issue. The field had been darkened for the fireworks show. That did not stop the Marlins grounds crew. With the fireworks exploding and the music playing, workers dug out the rubber in the darkness and made the presentation to Halladay.10

The perfect game was the second thrown in the major leagues in 2010. Twenty days earlier, in Oakland, Dallas Braden of the A’s had hurled a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

It was not the first time Halladay had flirted with a no-hitter. In his second career start, in 1998, he had taken a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the Tigers only to see it foiled by Bobby Higginson’s pinch-hit homer with two outs in the final inning. He had also hurled a one-hitter against the Yankees in 2009. The next time Halladay pursued a no-hitter would be in his first postseason appearance, four months down the road. When he no-hit Cincinnati in the first game of the National League Divisional Series, he joined Don Larsen, as the only two pitchers to hurl no-hitters in postseason play.

Catcher Carlos Ruiz went on to catch three more no-hitters during his time with the Phillies. The four no-hitters tied him with Jason Varitek for the major-league record.

Halladay would pitch to a 21-10 record in 2010 and win the National League Cy Young Award. He had previously been accorded the same honor, in 2003, in the American League while pitching for Toronto. He had one more season of success in 2011, when he would join the small group of pitchers who started All-Star Games in each league. He retired at the end of the 2013 season with 203 career wins.

This article was published in SABR’s “No-Hitters” (2017), edited by Bill Nowlin. To read more Games Project stories from this book, click here.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com and:

Kepner, Tyler. “20 Days Later, It’s Halladay’s Turn at Perfection,” New York Times, May 30, 2010: SP3.

Box scores for the game can be found here:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/FLO/FLO201005290.shtml

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2010/B05290FLO2010.htm

Notes

The Tigers drew first blood in the game off Indians starter Fausto Carmona in the bottom of the second inning on Miguel Cabrera’s solo home run. The game remained a 1-0 pitchers’ duel between Galarraga and Carmona until the bottom of the eighth inning, when Detroit padded its precarious lead on a single by Magglio Ordonez that scored Austin Jackson. Johnny Damon also scored on the play after a throwing error by Indians right fielder Shin-Soo Choo, giving the Tigers a 3-0 lead heading into the top of the ninth inning.

Although Carmona had pitched well in allowing only two earned runs in eight innings, it was Detroit’s hurler who was truly magnificent. Galarraga had cruised through his first eight innings without allowing a single baserunner. And he made very easy work of the Indians’ bats, with the only slight threats to that point coming in the fifth inning. During that frame, Galarraga took DH Travis Hafner to a three-ball count — Galarraga’s only three-ball count of the game — before retiring him on a fly ball. Two batters later, Russell Branyan hit a ball up the middle that deflected off Galarraga, but charging third baseman Brandon Inge was able to scoop it up and toss Branyan out.5

Things were not as easy, however, when Galarraga faced Cleveland’s Mark Grudzielanek to begin the top of the ninth inning. Grudzielanek crushed Galarraga’s first offering deep to the left-center-field gap. Center fielder Jackson — doing his “best impression of Willie Mays” — made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch after running the ball down to the edge of the warning track, however, to keep Galarraga’s perfect game intact.6 “It was one of the most unbelievable catches I’ve ever seen,” manager Leyland said the next day.7 After getting the next batter on a groundout, Jason Donald — the ninth hitter in Cleveland’s lineup — was the only person standing in the way of Galarraga’s quest to record only the 21st perfect game in the major leagues.

With the count at 1-and-1 — and with the 17,738 fans in attendance at Comerica Park on their feet cheering — Donald hit a groundball in the right-side hole. First baseman Cabrera backhanded the ball, then turned and threw to Galarraga, who had raced over to cover first base. Despite video replay evidence that clearly showed that the throw had indeed beaten the runner, longtime veteran umpire Jim Joyce emphatically called Donald safe on the play. Although Galarraga was certain his perfect game had just been robbed — with even the Indians’ Donald looking “a bit distraught” by the call — the Tigers hurler did not have an expected “classic baseball meltdown.”8 Instead, he gracefully smiled and walked away as the “boos echoed” at Comerica Park.9 “I was in shock,” Galarraga later said. “I was nervous, angry, happy — so many feelings together. I didn’t know how to react.”10 Manager Leyland charged onto the field to protest the call, but to no avail.

Although Galarraga was now dealing with his first baserunner of the contest when play resumed, he continued to pitch from the windup to Cleveland’s next batter, Trevor Crowe.11 This enabled Donald to advance all the way to third base on defensive indifference, but no harm was done when Crowe bounced out to end the game. Along with streaming onto the field to congratulate Galarraga on his phenomenal performance, Detroit players and coaches also took the opportunity to confront Joyce after having had the chance to see the replay — all the while the embattled umpire was being “booed lustily by the crowd.”12 The final line of Galarraga’s one-hit shutout and first career complete game included three strikeouts and only 88 pitches — with 67 of those being strikes.

“It was the biggest call of my career, and I kicked the (stuff) out of it,” a distressed Joyce said in the umpires’ locker room immediately after the game. “I just cost that kid a perfect game.”13 Joyce apologized to Galarraga that night. “(Joyce) probably feels more bad than me,” Galarraga said after their meeting. “Nobody’s perfect. Everybody’s human. I understand. I give the guy a lot of credit for saying, ‘I need to talk to you.’ You don’t see an umpire tell you that after a game. I gave him a hug.”14 Leyland was also sympathetic toward the doleful umpire. “It’s a crying shame,” the veteran manager said. “Jim is a class guy. This sounds crazy, but after looking at the play, nobody is going to feel worse than he does. I yelled a bit [at Joyce] after the game because emotions are high. You just want it so bad for the kid.”15 A few days after the game, Joyce — “one of the game’s most respected umpires” — admitted that he knew he had blown the call even before watching the replay.16

Fans, sportswriters, and even government officials appealed to Commissioner Bud Selig to overturn the blown call and award Galarraga the perfect game. Selig ultimately decided against establishing a potentially problematic precedent by reversing the call. He did, however, commit to evaluating the expansion of existing instant-replay rules as a result of the incident.17

Although Joyce and his family received death threats during the tumultuous night of Galarraga’s near-perfect game, public opinion had quickly turned in his favor — largely due to his willingness to admit his mistake, apologize, and take responsibility.18 Further healing came during Detroit’s series finale with Cleveland the next day. Before the game, General Motors honored Galarraga by presenting him with a new Chevrolet Corvette convertible.19 And with Joyce serving as home-plate umpire for the contest, Leyland enlisted Galarraga to deliver the lineup card to him in an attempt to calm fans and bring closure to the issue. The “majority of the fans rose and cheered” during the lineup exchange, while the tearful umpire shook hands with the smiling pitcher in a display of mutual respect.20 “I didn’t expect (to see Galarraga),” an emotional Joyce said after the game. “That shows me a lot of class. The sportsmanship that he holds in his inner being is right there with the best of them.”21

As a testament to the historical importance of the game, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum requested that Galarraga’s spikes, the first base, and a ball from the contest be donated to document the “seminal” moment in the annals of baseball.22 Galarraga and Joyce also received commendation for their exemplary sportsmanship from then-President Barack Obama. “I thought that showed something about sportsmanship that you don’t see enough of in America today,” the president said.23 Additionally, in a show of unity Galarraga and Joyce jointly presented an award during the prominent ESPYS ceremony held a little more than a month after their incident.24 In 2011 the pair teamed up again to write a book about their experience. And when asked several years later about the experience he shared with his unlikely ally, Galarraga still had no bitterness. “It was a good experience for me,” he said.25

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com (www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET201006020.shtml) for box scores/play-by-play information and other data as well as Retrosheet (www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2010/B06020DET2010.htm)

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also accessed ESPN.com; Newspapers.com; and YouTube.com.

Notes

1 Shawn Windsor, “Former Starter Galarraga Sent to Mud Hens,” Detroit Free Press, March 19, 2010: 2B.

2 John Lowe, “Redemption for Galarraga?” Detroit Free Press, May 15, 2010: 2B.

3 John Lowe, “In Return to the Tigers’ Rotation, Galarraga Seeks Permanent Role,” Lansing State Journal, May 16, 2010: 1D; John Lowe, “D-Train Is Done in the D,” Detroit Free Press, May 30, 2010: 11C.

4 Tom Verducci, “A Heartbreaking Call That Could Change the Course of Baseball,” Sports Illustrated, si.com/more-sports/2010/06/02/joyces-missedcall, June 2, 2010, accessed March 29, 2018.

5 John Lowe, “Perfect Mistake,” Detroit Free Press, June 3, 2010: 4C.

6 Michael J. Happy, “Jackson’s Catch Saved It — for a While,” Fox Sports Detroit, foxsports.com/west/story/jacksons-catch-saved-it-for-a-while-060210, June 2, 2010, accessed March 29, 2018.

7 Chris Iott, “Tigers Still in Awe of Austin Jackon’s sic Catch in Armando Galarraga’s Perfect Game Bid,” MLive, mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2010/06/tigers_still_in_awe_of_austin.html, June 3, 2010, accessed March 29, 2018.

8 Ted Berg, “Retiring Journeyman Armando Galarraga Leaves Behind an Outsized Legacy,” USA Today, ftw.usatoday.com/2015/12/armando-galarraga-perfect-game-jim-joyce-retirement-replay-detroit-tigers-mlb, December 8, 2015, accessed March 29, 2018.

9 Associated Press, “Blown Call Costs Galarraga,” Times Herald (Port Huron, Michigan), June 3, 2010: 1B.

10 Paul White, “Missed Call Leaves Detroit’s Armando Galarraga One Out Shy of Perfect Game,” USA Today, content.usatoday.com/communities/dailypitch/post/2010/06/detroits-armando-galarraga-3-outs-from-another-perfect-game/1#.Wr2X8YjwbIU, June 2, 2010, accessed March 29, 2018.

11 Tyler Kepner, “Perfect Game Thwarted by Faulty Call,” New York Times, nytimes.com/2010/06/03/sports/baseball/03detroit.html, June 2, 2010, accessed March 29, 2018.

12 Associated Press, “Detroit Tigers’ Armando Galarraga Loses Perfect Game Bid on Controversial Call by Umpire Jim Joyce,” New Jersey On-Line, nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2010/06/detroit_tigers_armando_galarra.html, June 2, 2010, accessed March 29, 2018.

13 Larry Lage, “Galarraga Almost Perfect Against the Indians,” News-Messenger (Fremont, Ohio), June 3, 2010: B1.

14 White, “Missed Call Leaves Detroit’s Armando Galarraga One Out Shy of Perfect Game.”

15 Ibid.

16 Berg, “Retiring Journeyman Armando Galarraga Leaves Behind an Outsized Legacy”; Shawn Windsor, Mark Snyder, Jo-Ann Barnas, and John Lowe, “An Ump and the Margin of Error,” Detroit Free Press, June 6, 2010: 6C.

17 “Extra Points,” Detroit Free Press, June 4, 2010: 1B; Robert Gibbs, “Press Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs,” White House Office of the Press Secretary, web.archive.org/web/20100607063754/http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/press-briefing-press-secretary-robert-gibbs-632010, June 3, 2010 (archived by the Internet Archive from the original on June 7, 2010), accessed March 29, 2018; John G. Robertson and Andy Saunders, The Games That Changed Baseball: Milestones in Major League History (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2016), 227-228; Shawn Windsor, “Taking the High Road,” Detroit Free Press, June 4, 2010: 1B.

18 “Extra Points”; Robertson and Saunders, The Games That Changed Baseball: Milestones in Major League History.

19 Izzi Bendall, “Detroit Tigers Pitcher Armando Galarraga Gets a 2010 Chevrolet Corvette from GM,” Autoweek, autoweek.com/article/car-news/detroit-tigers-pitcher-armando-galarraga-gets-2010-chevrolet-corvette-gm, June 2, 2010, accessed March 29, 2018.

20 Windsor, “Taking the High Road.”

21 Ibid.

22 John Odell, “Perfect Sportsmen,” National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, baseballhall.org/perfect-sportsmen, accessed March 29, 2018; Associated Press, “Bagged! Hall of Fame to Get Base, Spikes of Armando Galarraga Gem,” MLive, mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2010/06/bagged_hall_of_fame_to_get_bas.html, June 8, 2010, accessed March 29, 2018.

23 “Extra Points,” Detroit Free Press, June 9, 2010: 1B.

24 Aaron Gleeman, “Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce, Together Again at ESPYs,” NBC Sports, mlb.nbcsports.com/2010/07/15/armando-galarraga-and-jim-joyce-together-again-at-espys, July 15, 2010, accessed March 29, 2018.

25 George Sipple, “Armando Galarraga Retires, Wants to Be Pitching Coach,” Detroit Free Press, freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2015/12/07/armando-galarraga-retires-detroit-tigers/76929124, December 7, 2015, accessed March 28, 2018.

On opening night at the new Nationals Park, Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk-off home run to deep center field in the bottom of the ninth inning off Peter Moylan for a 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves. Washington did not top the attendance mark that night of 39,389 fans in 2008.

Toward the end of the season, the battle for last place in the National League East was never in doubt, but the distinction for the worst record in the major leagues was certainly in play. Over that same 10-game stretch, the San Diego Padres won five games, including a three-game sweep at Nationals Park. They finished ahead of the Nationals by 3½ games. While the Nationals were playing in Philadelphia and being swept by the Phillies in a season-ending series, the American League’s Seattle Mariners were sweeping a home series with the Oakland Athletics to finish ahead of the Nationals by 1½ games. The Nationals’ record of 59-102 was the worst in baseball, ensuring the first pick in the 2009 first-year player draft. In 2009, the season-ending saga played out differently with the same conclusion. The Nationals finished with seven straight wins but the worst record in baseball (59-103), ensuring the first pick in the 2010 first-year player draft as well.

In their next step toward baseball respectability, the Nationals selected San Diego State University right-handed pitcher Stephen Strasburg as the first pick in the first-year player draft on June 9, 2009. A year later, on June 7, 2010, they also picked first and selected a 17-year old phenom from Las Vegas, Bryce Harper.

After making his debut in the Arizona Fall League in 2009 and pitching at Double-A Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Triple-A Syracuse, New York, in the spring of 2010, Strasburg was penciled in for his major-league debut on June 8, 2010, creating “a buzz in the air … unlike any that had been felt since baseball returned to the nation’s capital.”1 That buzz was dubbed “Strasmas” and spread through the press, on baseball-related websites and on popular blogs.2 The Nationals distributed more than 200 media credentials and “an otherwise pedestrian early-June game was transformed into the most singular sort of Washington event.”3 Baseball author Elliott Smith later observed of the Nationals, “The dramatic turnaround of one of MLB’s most feckless franchises can be directly traced to two days, June 7-8, 2010.”4

In a retrospective look in 2017, Washington Post sports columnist Thomas Boswell commented: “From Opening Day of 2005 to the day Strasburg pitched his first game it’s possible that I never saw a single one of my lifelong national-baseball-writer friends inside RFK Stadium or at the new Nationals Park. Maybe I’m forgetting a couple. But the Nats were a poor-to-bad team and off the grid except to lots of DC baseball fans. It felt like ‘baseball people’ who hadn’t been to DC for a game in decades had to figure out whether they should land at Reagan, BWI or Dulles Airport.”5

Strasburg took the mound at Nationals Park after pitching in 11 games (55⅓ inning) at Harrisburg and Syracuse and posting a record of 7-2 with a 1.30 ERA, 65 strikeouts, and 13 walks. He didn’t know who his catcher would be until that afternoon. Future Hall of Famer Iván Rodriguez had been on the disabled list with a bad back. Barry Svrluga noted in the Washington Post, “Strasburg, too, wanted him back. He said he spent time getting updates on Rodriguez’s health in the week before his start.”6 He got his wish, and the Nationals left the pregame scouting-report meetings to Rodriguez alone so Strasburg could just “go out there and enjoy it.”7 His opponent this night was righthander Jeff Karstens (1-1), obtained by the Pirates from the New York Yankees in a 2008 trade.

Strasburg’s first pitch to Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen was a 97 mph fastball for ball one, leading this fan to obsessively monitor the radar gun readings on the center-field scoreboard throughout the night, along with many of the 40,315 fans in attendance. Strasburg moved steadily through the Pirates’ lineup in the first three innings, allowing only a line-drive single to right by Andy LaRoche in the second. Strasburg struck out six on a mix of curves, changeups, and 98-99 mph heaters. Meanwhile, Karstens yielded Ryan Zimmerman’s 12th home run of the season in the first inning and the Nationals led 1-0.

In the Pirates’ fourth, Strasburg’s strikeout barrage took a pause. Neil Walker and Lastings Milledge singled to open the frame, and a double-play groundout by Garrett Jones excited the partisan crowd. But Delwyn Young lined his third home run of the season to right-center, and the Pirates led 2-1. Young was the last Pirate to reach base against Strasburg, who struck out five of six batters in the next two innings.

The Nationals got to Karstens quickly in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a 3-2 lead. After Ryan Zimmerman’s single to left center, Adam Dunn hit his 11th home run, to right. Josh Willingham went back-to-back with his 11th homer also and just like that, Karstens’ night was over.

As Strasburg took the mound in the top of the seventh inning with four consecutive strikeouts, the crowd sensed that he had one more inning in his arm. He made it seven in a row by striking out Jones, Young, and LaRoche, all swinging, the latter two on 99 mph fastballs on 0-and-2 counts to finish with 94 pitches, 65 strikes, and no walks in seven innings. The 14 strikeouts broke the Nationals record of 13 set by John Patterson in 2005.8 When the record was announced during seventh-inning stretch time, the crowded demanded and received a curtain call by Strasburg.

Perhaps the rest of the game seemed a bit anticlimactic. Tyler Clippard replaced Strasburg and recorded his 13th hold in the eighth inning. The Nationals added a run in the bottom of the eighth for insurance, and Matt Capps closed out the Pirates in the ninth for his 19th save and a 5-2 win.

On June 13, Strasmas moved to Cleveland. Three days earlier, TBS scrapped its previous telecast plans and aired a game between two last-place teams. The Indians ranked last in the American League in attendance, but 32,876 came to see Strasburg pitch. He lasted into the sixth inning, and the Nationals won 9-4. Strasburg’s line for his first two games: 12⅓ innings, six hits, three runs, 22 strikeouts, two wins. The hype extended to Albert Chen’s Sports Illustrated account of these two games: “Every fifth day in the baseball world will be Strasmas.”9

The 2010 season did not end well for Strasburg and the Nationals. On August 21 in Philadelphia, Strasburg tore his ulnar collateral ligament, requiring Tommy John surgery and a lengthy rehabilitation. The Nationals again finished the season in last place in the National League East with a 69-93 record. Their slow and tortuous path toward baseball respectability took another step forward in 2011 when they signed Jayson Werth10 and in 2012 when Bryce Harper made his major-league debut. But on this night we can remember that “Strasburg put the Nats back on the baseball map.”11

Author’s note

Sitting in Section 130 with four colleagues in town for a business meeting, this author took in all the sights, sounds, and action in an electric atmosphere at Nationals Park. A photo album created to capture this game and signed by Stephen Strasburg is a treasured memento of that night.12

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com for box scores/play-by-play information (baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS201006080.shtml) and other data, as well as Retrosheet.org (retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2010/B06080WAS2010.htm).

Notes