San Francisco Giant pitcher Matt Cain pitched a perfect game last night, the 22nd in the history of Major League Baseball. Wednesday night Cain defeated the Houston Astros by the score of 10-0 giving up no hits and allowing no runners on base.
Cain needed 125 pitches in San Francisco to defeat the Astros. The Giants pitcher had 14 strikeouts to tie the record for strikeouts in a perfect game with Sandy Koufax that was set back in 1965. Cain was mobbed by his teammates at the pitching mound after Jason Castro an Astros’ pinch-hitter grounded to third to end the game.
He received a standing ovation from the home crowd at AT&T Park and said he knew he had his good stuff when he was warning up in the bullpen prior to the game.
It was the 14th no-hitter and first perfect game in San Francisco franchise history. Jonathan Sanchez pitched the last no-hitter for San Francisco nearly three years ago in July of 2009. The 21st perfect game was pitched this season on April 22 by Phillip Humber of the Chicago White Sox. This season is the second in the last three seasons to have two perfect games in the same year.
In 2010, there were two perfect games thrown. One was by Roy Halladay for Philadelphia and one by Dallas Braden for the Oakland Athletics. Prior to that happening, the last time two perfect games were thrown in the same season was in 1880. Overall, the National League has had 13 perfect games and the American League nine.
