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This Day In Sports…May 5, 2021, five years ago today:
John Means becomes the first Baltimore Oriole to throw an individual no-hitter in 52 years—since Hall of Famer Jim Palmer in 1969—when he blanks the Mariners 6-0 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. Means faced the minimum 27 batters—he was denied a perfect game when a Mariner reached base on a dropped third strike that was ruled a wild pitch in the third inning (the runner was then erased trying to steal). Means was the first pitcher in big league history to throw a non-perfect no-hitter with no walks, no hit batters and no errors. Not a bad way to record your first career complete game.
It wasn’t the most heartbreaking way to let a perfect game get away, since the ruinous play happened in the third inning. That distinction belongs to the Detroit Tigers’ Armando Galarraga, who was robbed of a perfecto in 2010 on what would have been the final out when umpire Jim Joyce erroneously called Cleveland’s Jason Donald safe at first base. It’s known as the “28-out perfect game”—Galarraga retired the next hitter to end it.
Extra innings were involved in two unfortunate finishes. In 1959, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Harvey Haddix carried a perfect game through 12 innings against the Milwaukee Braves. But alas, Haddix allowed a baserunner in the 13th, and then he’d go on to lose the game. And in 1995, Montreal’s Pedro Martinez mowed down all 27 San Diego Padres he faced over the first nine innings. But it was a scoreless game and went to extras. Martinez would allow a leadoff double in the 10th, but he got the victory.
Two former Boise Hawks were also involved in a heartbreaker. Rich Hill of the L.A. Dodgers had a perfect game going in the ninth inning at Pittsburgh in 2017, only to see it wiped out on an error by teammate Logan Forsythe. Hill still had a no-hitter intact in the 10th, but ex-Hawk Josh Harrison clubbed a solo home run to win the game—the first and only time a no-no has ever been broken up by a walk-off homer.
A number of perfect games have been quashed in the ninth inning. It happened twice to Mike Mussina. As a Yankee in 2001, Mussina was down to the last strike in a quest for perfection against Boston in Fenway Park. That’s when Carl Everett lined a single to left to spoil it. As an Oriole four seasons earlier, Mussina carried a perfect game into the ninth versus Cleveland, but Sandy Alomar Jr. singled with one out. Mussina struck out the next two batters and settled for a one-hitter.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
