April 20, 1990: Mariners’ Brian Holman hurls near-perfect heartbreaker in Oakland

“We won the game, and we went back to the hotel. I woke up at 4 o’clock the next morning, sat up in bed and screamed as loud as I could. I knew I would never have a chance to do that [pitch a perfect game] again.” – Brian Holman1

In May 1989 the cash-strapped Seattle Mariners shipped Mark Langston, their best pitcher and an impending free agent, and another player to the Montreal Expos in exchange for three pitching prospects. Although the trade netted the Mariners a raw and wild future Hall of Famer in Randy Johnson, the most polished of the three was Brian Holman.2

Holman, the Expos’ first-round draft pick (16th overall) in 1983, started 22 games for the 1989 Mariners and impressed with an 8-10 won-lost record, a team-leading six complete games, two shutouts, and a 3.44 ERA. It led to the Mariners’ Opening Day start in 1990, and the 25-year-old was the winning pitcher against the California Angels in Anaheim on April 9. Six days later, he pitched a quality start but lost 3-0 to Bob Welch and the defending World Series champion Oakland Athletics in Seattle.

His third start of the season, on Friday night, April 20, was a rematch against Welch and the A’s in the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.

Seattle entered the contest with a 2-8 record. Its starting nine included nascent homegrown superstars Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez. The Mariners had been shut out three times, including a combined no-hitter by former teammate Langston (who had left Montreal and signed with California) and Mike Witt on April 11. By contrast, Oakland had won eight of nine, with half of its victories coming against the Mariners. The A’s lineup featured fearsome sluggers José Canseco and Mark McGwire, the so-called Bash Brothers, and Rickey Henderson, who had already amassed enough credentials to warrant consideration for induction into Cooperstown.

Nearly 45,000 fans packed the Coliseum on a cool spring night. Cablevision subscribers watched from home via the Bay Area SportsChannel. Viewers from the Seattle area tuned into KSTW-TV Channel 11. No one likely expected the drama that was about to unfold.

Welch, a 33-year-old right-hander in his 13th big-league season, had had a dreadful spring. When the regular season began, however, the Michigan native found his groove and entered the game with a 2-0 record and a 0.77 ERA. He struck out leadoff batter Harold Reynolds. First baseman Alvin Davis rapped a two-out single, but was stranded when left fielder Jeffrey Leonard lined out sharply to second.

“I was terrible in the warmup in the bullpen,” Holman said later.3 Mariners pitcher Keith Comstock told Holman afterward that he looked so bad the relievers were taking bets on when he’d be knocked out of the game.4 Holman retired Henderson, always a leadoff home-run threat, on a hard-hit ball to right and struck out Stan Javier. On a 3-and-2 count, Holman whiffed Canseco on a fastball that exploded away, ending the bottom of the first.

Welch walked the leadoff batter in each of the next two innings but pitched out of trouble. Holman set down the A’s one-two-three in the second, third, and fourth. “My arm loosened,” he recalled. “After the second inning, I couldn’t miss a spot.”5

Both starters entered the fifth inning with shutouts intact. Welch easily retired the first two Mariners. Suddenly, the Mariners received power production from three unlikely sources. Light-hitting shortstop Mike Brumley, the nine-hole hitter, lined a triple to right field. Reynolds plated Brumley with another three-bagger. Greg Briley doubled to score Reynolds, putting the Mariners up 2-0.

Holman faced McGwire to open the bottom of the fifth. In Holman’s previous start against the A’s, on April 15, McGwire yanked Holman’s 2-and-0 pitch into the Kingdome seats for a two-run homer.6 The prolific slugger took ball one, then belted a fly to deep center that Griffey Jr. caught on the warning track. The cool night air might have kept the drive in the ballpark. Holman retired the next two batters to keep his perfect game intact.

Welch set Seattle down in order in the top of the sixth. Holman returned the favor in the bottom of the inning. The young right-hander had now gone deeper in a game without allowing a baserunner than at any previous time in his major-league career.7

Welch dispatched the Mariners again in the seventh and Holman faced the top of the A’s lineup for the third time. “I thought if he could get Rickey, Javier, and Canseco, that was the key,” catcher Dave Valle surmised about the prospect of a perfect game.8 Henderson flied out to Griffey Jr. and Javier rolled over an easy grounder to Reynolds at second.

Canseco ran the count full, then lashed a fastball down the third-base line that just missed being a fair ball. Unruffled, Holman elected to challenge the 1988 American League Most Valuable Player with another heater. His seventh pitch of the at-bat bore in at the letters and Canseco took a mighty cut but came up empty. “I should have hit [that pitch] all the way to China,” the Cuban-born slugger lamented after the game.9

Holman returned to the dugout. “I sat down and everyone got away from me. I looked up at the scoreboard and saw zeros all the way.”10 Only then did Holman realize what was happening.

Tension continued to build. ESPN, in its first season of broadcasting major-league baseball, cut away from its national game to join the contest. Seattle club owner Jeff Smulyan tuned in from his home in Indianapolis.11 “Be diving for anything, huh?” 20-year-old Griffey Jr. implored the veteran outfielder Leonard on the bench.12

Mike Norris relieved Welch and retired the Mariners to keep the score at 2-0 going into the bottom of the eighth. Seattle manager Jim Lefebvre made a defensive move, replacing Davis at first base with slick-fielding designated hitter Pete O’Brien. It meant giving up the DH, but with Davis’s spot in the order due up seventh the next inning, there seemed little likelihood that Holman would come to bat.

“Pound the ball in and don’t throw a hanging breaking ball to anyone,” Holman reminded himself.13 McGwire flied out to right, Ron Hassey struck out looking, and Terry Steinbach grounded out to short. His entire repertoire – fastball, curveball, changeup, and slider – kept working to perfection.

Holman hoped for a quick half-inning in the top of the ninth, but the Mariners’ bats unexpectedly came alive. O’Brien and Martinez opened with base hits. Valle’s bunt moved the runners up. Both scored on Brumley’s sacrifice fly and Reynolds’s two-out single. A’s manager Tony La Russa summoned southpaw Dave Otto to face Briley. Lefebvre countered with righthanded pinch-hitter Henry Cotto.

Holman came out to the on-deck circle and begged Cotto to strike out. “I am literally mouthing the words to Henry, ‘Strike Out!’” he pleaded.14 But Otto couldn’t find his control and walked Cotto. Holman, a career .111 hitter from his days in the National League, came to bat and punched a grounder to second that Mike Gallego booted for an error. Leonard singled to score Reynolds and Cotto, forcing Holman to jog to second. Griffey Jr. grounded out to end the half-inning.

Holman returned to the slab with a 6-0 lead. Many of the partisan A’s fans began to cheer on the Mariners hurler with every pitch. Holman struck out pinch-hitter Félix José and the Coliseum crowd went wild. “I pitched a no-hitter in high school,” the Wichita North graduate reflected afterward, “but it was nothing like this.”15

Walt Weiss grounded to second. Holman stepped off the mound, one out away from tossing just the 13th perfect game in major-league history.16 “I’m going to be in the Hall of Fame,” he fantasized in a moment of hubris. “They’re going to want my hat, shirt, jock, and underwear. Put it up in a fake locker in Cooperstown.”17 What befell Holman next was akin to classic Greek tragedy.

Lefty-swinging pinch-hitter Ken Phelps strode to the plate. The 35-year-old entered the season averaging one home run in every 14.2 at-bats. He had been loosening up in the A’s locker room since the sixth inning.

Valle called for a first-pitch fastball. Holman left his 99th pitch of the game up in the zone. Phelps launched a missile over the right-field fence, clapped his hands once as he rounded second base, jumped on home plate with both feet, and patted umpire Drew Coble playfully on the rear. “I was looking for a fastball. It was probably one of the only mistakes he made tonight,” Phelps mused afterward.18

The Seattle native and ex-Mariner spoiled a perfect game, a no-hitter, and a shutout with one swing. As of 2023, it was the only time a perfect game had been broken up by a home run with two outs in the ninth inning.19

Holman regrouped and struck out Henderson on five pitches to secure the 6-1 victory. The promising young right-hander won 37 major-league games, tore his rotator cuff at the end of the 1991 season, and never pitched again. Phelps’s shot was his only homer in 120 at-bats split between Oakland and Cleveland and the last of his career. Welch won 27 games and the 1990 AL Cy Young Award, Henderson was voted American League MVP, and Oakland advanced to its third consecutive World Series.

Acknowledgments

SABR members John Fredland, Gary Belleville, and Kurt Blumenau provided insightful comments and review on an earlier version of this article.

This article was fact-checked by Madison McEntire and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

The author reviewed the Oakland Tribune, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle Times, and Tacoma News Tribune newspapers for game coverage.

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

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK199004200.shtml.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1990/B04200OAK1990.htm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HG69Pv7f7A&ab_channel=PaulHoover.

Finnigan, Bob. “Almost Perfect, Holman Loses Bid With 1 Out to Go,” Seattle Times, April 21, 1990: B1.

Notes

1 Brian Holman (as told to Jim Street), “The Night Holman Was Nearly Perfect,” golferswest.com, February 2, 2018.

2 The trade on May 25 had Montreal sending Holman, Johnson, and Gene Harris to Seattle for Langston and a player to be named later. Montreal received Mike Campbell on July 31 to complete the trade.

3 Danny Gallagher, “Expo Ex Holman Talks the Talk,” canadianbaseballnetwork.com, April 21, 2015.

4 “The Night Holman Was Nearly Perfect.”

5 Larry Stone, “Not a Perfect World,” Seattle Times, April 16, 2010: C1.

6 Jim Street, “M’s Get Goose Eggs for Easter,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 16, 1990: D-1.

7 Holman threw five perfect innings before surrendering a hit en route to a three-hit shutout over the Detroit Tigers at Tiger Stadium on July 14, 1989.

8 Associated Press, “One Pitch Kept Holman From Perfect Game,” Tampa Bay Times, April 22, 1990, https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1990/04/22/one-pitch-kept-holman-from-perfect-game/.

9 Jim Street, “Bang! Holman Perfecto Gone,” The Sporting News, April 30, 1990: 20.

10 Larry Stone, “Not a Perfect World.”

11 Larry LaRue, “A Perfect Shame,” Tacoma News Tribune, April 21, 1990: C1.

12 Larry LaRue, “A Perfect Shame.”

13 “The Night Holman Was Nearly Perfect.”

14 Shannon Drayer, “Joe Saunders’ Rare At-Bat Brings to Mind Brian Holman,” sports.mynorthwest.com, July 1, 2013.

15 Jim Street, “Holman Close to Perfection,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 21, 1990: D1.

16 It would have been the Mariners’ first no-hitter/perfect game. Six weeks later, on June 2, Randy Johnson threw the team’s first no-hitter; Félix Hernández the first perfect game on August 15, 2012.

17 Larry Stone, “Not a Perfect World.”

18 Dave Newhouse, “It Took One Pitch from Phelps to End Holman’s Dream Game,” Oakland Tribune, April 21, 1990: C-6.

19 Stew Thornley, “Lost in the Ninth: No-Hitters Broken Up in the Ninth Inning Since 1961,” MilkeesPress.com, accessed October 25, 2023, https://milkeespress.com/lostninth.html.