Never before have I heard a home crowd irate after their pitcher just fired a one-hitter. Unfortunately, that was the case in Detroit last night.
Detroit Tigers’ pitcher Armando Galarraga was working on trying to become the third pitcher in the last month to throw a perfect game. He had retired 26 batters in a row in a truly dominant performance.
Then came up Cleveland Indians SS Jason Donald.
On a 1-1 pitch, Donald hit a slow roller between first and second, which first baseman Miguel Cabrera ranged over to his right to field. With Galarraga covering the bag at first, Cabrera threw the ball to Galarraga who stepped on first.
The game appeared to be over, and Galarraga just threw the 21st perfect game in baseball history.
But it was not meant to be.
First base umpire Jim Joyce called Donald safe.
It was a bang-bang call, but Donald was clearly out. In that spot and situation, it might go down as one of the worst regular season calls in baseball history.
Joyce ruined history. Galarraga went on to record the final out, and pitch a one-hitter, but it wasn’t the same. It might have been the most depressing one-hitter ever.
With a perfect game on the line, there is no way you can call Donald safe on that play. Even if he was safe, you call him out. Trust me, nobody in Cleveland would have cared.
And if you watch replays (I am sure we will get them shoved down our throats in the next 24 hours) you will see Joyce almost start to call Donald out and then change his mind. I am really not sure what he saw in that split second to switch his decision.
While unfortunately Joyce’s bad call will be the highlight of the game, there were a lot of other good things that came out of it. Here were some of the good points.
How about the pitching in MLB this year! Three perfect games in less than 30 days—are you kidding?
Galarraga threw 88 pitches ,and 67 of them were strikes!
Galarraga threw first pitch strikes to 24 of the 28 batters he faced.
Galarraga coming into last night averaged 91 mph on his fastball. He topped out at 94 and averaged 92 mph on his fastball against the Indians.
This entire game took one hour and 44 minutes. That’s old school.
Fausto Carmona was no slouch either. He gave up only two earned runs over eight compete innings, and took just 96 pitches to do so.
Austin Jackson’s catch on Mark Grudzielanek to lead off the ninth inning was Willie Mays-esque. It was just an amazing catch to preserve the perfect game at the time.
Another point that will be made from this game will be the call for more instant replay in baseball. I don't believe in instant replay; I am more for getting better umpires. I just don’t understand why baseball and all sports for that matter can’t hire younger, more athletic umpires who can keep up with the pace of today’s athletes.
Whatever baseball decides to do, this game was another black eye for the umpires that cost a pitcher a magical night.
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