August 15, 2012: King Felix Hernández throws a perfect game for Mariners

The chance of witnessing a perfect game is quite rare. As of 2025, there have been only 22 tossed in the American and National Leagues since 1901.

For many years, the only season with more than one major-league perfect game was 1880, when NL pitchers Lee Richmond and John Montgomery Ward threw perfect games five days apart from each other in June. In 2010 Dallas Braden of the Oakland Athletics and Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies recorded perfect games within three weeks of each other in May.

Two seasons later, in 2012, Philip Humber of the Chicago White Sox threw a perfect game against the Seattle Mariners on April 21, and Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants made it baseball’s third-ever season with multiple perfect games by dominating the Houston Astros on June 13.

On August 15, Seattle’s Felix Hernández took the mound against the Tampa Bay Rays at Safeco Field, where Chicago’s Humber had hurled his gem nearly four months earlier. The 26-year-old Hernández was a good bet for an outstanding performance, even if another perfect game seemed far-fetched. Hernández, in his eighth season with Seattle, was pitching particularly well since the All-Star break, even as the Mariners were headed for their third straight losing season. He led the majors in innings pitched since the All-Star Game (47⅓), was tied for first in complete games (2), and had the lowest opponent batting average (.168).

Additionally, Safeco was heavily a pitcher’s park in 2012. In a season when the average American League batter hit .255 with a .731 OPS, Safeco yielded just a .225 average and .624 OPS. Along with Humber’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.1)

Tampa Bay entered the Wednesday afternoon game tied with the Baltimore Orioles for the American League’s wild-card spot and had reached the postseason in three of the previous four seasons. Nevertheless, during that time the Rays had been on the losing side of two perfect games: Mark Buehrle of the White Sox in 2009 and Braden in 2010.2 Tampa Bay started Jeremy Hellickson, who was 3-0 against the Mariners with a 0.92 ERA so far in his three-season career.

The Rays’ Sam Fuld led off the game and flied out to right fielder Eric Thames at the warning track. It was one of the hardest hit balls of the game. “I saw it hit, got on my horse, and went off and caught it,” Thames said later.3 B.J. Upton grounded out on the first pitch to shortstop Brendan Ryan. Then Matt Joyce grounded to second. With only seven pitches thrown, Hernández was on his way.

In the Mariners’ first, Hellickson gave up a hit on the first pitch to Dustin Ackley, but Michael Saunders lined to second baseman Ben Zobrist, who doubled Ackley off first. Jesus Montero lined out to third. With seven pitches thrown, Hellickson had matched Hernández, and TV play-by-play announcer Dave Sims said, “It’s going to be one of those type of games.”4

After Hernández struck out Evan Longoria to begin the top of the second, Zobrist started out 3-and-0 before grounding out to Ryan, who was playing the shift on the right side of second. Carlos Peña’s first-pitch fly out ended the inning.

The Mariners had a mild two-out threat in the second. Hellickson retired catcher John Jaso – traded to Seattle from Tampa Bay in the previous offseason – and Kyle Seager, but Justin Smoak reached on an error by shortstop Elliot Johnson, who booted the groundball while playing the shift to the right side of second base. Trayvon Robinson then singled. Hellickson was able to pitch around the error, getting Thames to fly to left.

Hernández had another seven-pitch inning in the third. Jose Lobaton flied out to short right field for the first out. Johnson narrowly avoided getting hit on his foot, then struck out on a ball in the dirt. A Sean Rodríguez fly out to left completed one time through the order. Hernández acknowledged afterward that this was the first time the thought of a perfect game crossed his mind.5

The only run of the game was scored in the bottom of the third. Ryan led off with a single to left. He was still on first two outs later when Montero came to bat. On the second pitch, Ryan got a great jump to steal second; as Hellickson threw a wild pitch past catcher Lobaton, Ryan kept going to third. One pitch later, Montero singled to left, scoring Ryan.

Fuld again flirted with becoming the Rays’ first baserunner in the fourth, nearly getting hit by a pitch, working the count full, and hitting a line drive right at Seager at third. Upton and Joyce both struck out swinging on 2-and-2 counts. For his part, Hellickson kept the game close by retiring nine Mariners in a row, beginning with Jaso’s groundout to end the third.

Hernández worked through the tough middle of the lineup in the fifth. Three-time All-Star Longoria hit a hard lineout to Ackley at second. Zobrist – headed for Top 10 finishes in the AL in 2012 in walks, on-base percentage, and offensive WAR – fouled off three pitches before flying out to deep left field. Finally, Peña, a veteran known for a patient approach and consistent power, grounded out on a swinging bunt fielded by Jaso in front of home plate.

In the sixth inning, Hernández continued to dominate by striking out the side. Lobaton, Johnson, and Rodríguez all went down swinging to make it seven strikeouts through six innings.

The Rays began their third time through the order in the seventh. Fuld sent a weak grounder to second for the first out. Upton once again grounded out to shortstop, this time deep in the hole to Ryan after a diving Seager narrowly missed the ball.

On the longest at-bat of the day for Hernández, after the first pitch outside was called a strike on Joyce, Rays manager Joe Maddon was tossed out of the game for arguing with umpire Rob Drake. Some Mariners thought this was a tactical move to disrupt Hernández’s rhythm. “I was just yelling at Joe to get his ass out of there, so he could go back to pitching,” Seattle manager Eric Wedge said.6

After the game Maddon denied trying to break Hernández’s rhythm, claiming that his grievance was motivated by how big the umpire’s strike zone was to left-handed hitters. “And on top of all that, the game’s 1-0. And on top of all that, we’re trying to win a pennant.”7 After eight pitches and a full count, Joyce grounded to Smoak at first unassisted.

The Mariners had a couple of baserunners against Hellickson as the game progressed – Jaso doubled with two outs in the sixth and Thames walked with two outs in the seventh – but both were stranded. Hellickson’s day was complete after a seven-inning five-hit, one-earned run performance.

Hernández started the eighth at 85 pitches. He needed just 13 pitches to strike out Longoria, Zobrist, and Peña, all swinging.

After Kyle Farnsworth replaced Hellickson and pitched a one-two-three eighth, Hernández returned to the mound, three outs from perfection.

The Rays dipped into their bench. Desmond Jennings pinch-hit for Lobaton and, after a six-pitch at-bat, struck out swinging. Jeff Keppinger hit for Johnson and grounded weakly to short. For the 27th batter, Rodríguez went ahead 2-and-0. Hernández evened the count, then got Rodríguez looking for his 12th strikeout of the game.

Hernández and catcher Jaso were in sync the entire game. Pitching coach Carl Willis told Dave Mahler on Sports Radio 93.3 KJR that Hernandez shook off just three pitches out of 113.8

“I’ve been on the Rays before; I know their approach against Felix. It’s to hit fastball and hit it early,” Jaso said.9 The Rays expected 60 percent fastballs. Instead, most were off-speed. Jaso wanted to throw the hitters off.10

After 36 years as a franchise, the Mariners had their first perfect game, in front of 21,889 fans, including Hernández’s own section of the ballpark in the left-field corner, dubbed the King’s Court.” For Tampa Bay, Longoria, Upton, Zobrist, and Peña had been in the lineup for all three perfect games against the Rays, matching Alfredo Griffin, who faced Len Barker in 1981, Tom Browning in 1988, and Dennis Martínez in 1991.11 

Hernandez had 120 messages waiting on his phone and 300 missed calls. Many former teammates called, among them Freddy García, Adrian Beltré, Raúl Ibañez, and José Vidro.12

The next day there were plans for expanding the King’s Court for Hernández’s next start. Hernández said, “I still can’t believe it. It’s pretty special. And to do it here at Safeco Field, in front of these guys, that was pretty special, too.”13

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Carl Riechers and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Felix Hernández, 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/SEA201208150.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2012/B08150SEA2012.htm

Notes

1 Geoff Baker, “Mariners Will Move Fences In Next Season,” Seattle Times, October 3, 2012: C1.

2 Additionally, Edwin Jackson of the Arizona Diamondbacks had no-hit the Rays in 2010.

3 Larry Stone, “Crown Jewel – King Felix Joins Baseball’s Royalty,” Seattle Times, August 16, 2012: C1.

4 Comment made at 19:09 of video recording of Root Sports Northwest’s telecast of this game. “TB AT SEA – August 15, 2012,” YouTube video (MLBGlobal12), 2:42:55, accessed May 26, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsS7LA_r-a8.

5 Stone, “Crown Jewel – King Felix Joins Baseball’s Royalty.”

6 “Crown Jewel – King Felix Joins Baseball’s Royalty.”

7 Marc Topkin, “Manager Was Peeved, Not Playing Games: Maddon Was Irked at Umpire, Not Stalling During Perfect Game,” Tampa Bay Times, August 17, 2012: C.4.

8 Larry Stone, “10 Thoughts on Felix’s Perfect Game (OK,11),” Seattle Times: Blogs, August 16, 2012.

9 Marc Topkin, “No Resistance: Felix Hernandez Perfect Game Awes the Rays, Who Know the Subject Too Well,” Tampa Bay Times, August 16, 2012: C.1.

10 Jerry Brewer, “Rays Praise ‘Electric’ Felix,” Seattle Times, August 16, 2012: C3.

11 “Perfect Tonic for Snakebit Rays: Amnesia,” Seattle Times, August 19, 2012: C7.

12 Geoff Baker, “Felix Hernandez Still Hasn’t Come Down,” Seattle Times: Blogs, August 17, 2012.

13 “Felix Hernandez Still Hasn’t Come Down.” Hernández finished the season with a 13-9 record and a 3.06 ERA, while the Mariners came in fourth in the AL West with a 75-87 record. The Rays were third in the AL East at 90-72.