On Wednesday, June 13, 2012,

Matt Cain Matthew Thomas Cain (born October 1, 1984), nicknamed "The Horse", "Big Daddy", "Big Sugar" and "Cainer", is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career for the San Francisco Giants ...

of the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

pitched the 22nd

perfect game Perfect game may refer to: Sports * Perfect game (baseball), a complete-game win by a pitcher allowing no baserunners * Perfect game (bowling), a 300 game, 12 consecutive strikes in the same game * Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, New York ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) history and the first in Giants' franchise history. Pitching against the Houston Astros at

AT&T Park Oracle Park is a Major League Baseball stadium in the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Since 2000, it has been the home of the San Francisco Giants. Previously named Pacific Bell Park, SBC Park, and AT&T Park, the stadium's curren ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, Cain retired all 27 batters that he faced and tallied 14

strikeouts In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

, tied for the most strikeouts in a perfect game with

Sandy Koufax Sanford Koufax (; born Sanford Braun; December 30, 1935) is an American former left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played his entire career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1955 to 1966. He has been hailed as one of t ...

of the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

in 1965. Following Philip Humber's perfect game earlier in 2012, Cain's performance marked just the third season in MLB history in which multiple perfect games were thrown. In June 1880, Lee Richmond and John Montgomery Ward both threw perfect games; in May 2010

Dallas Braden Dallas Lee Braden (born August 13, 1983) is an American former professional baseball player and television sports commentator. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher from to as a member of the Oakland Athletics and, wh ...

and

Roy Halladay Harry Leroy "Roy" Halladay III (May 14, 1977 – November 7, 2017) was an American professional baseball pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies between 1998 and 2013. His nicknam ...

both accomplished the feat. Two notable defensive plays by Cain's teammates kept the perfect game intact. Melky Cabrera made a running catch at the wall in left field in the top of the sixth inning, while

Gregor Blanco Gregor Miguel Blanco Pedraza (born December 24, 1983) is a Venezuelan former professional baseball outfielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves, the Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants, Washington Nationals, ...

made a diving catch in right-center field to start the top of the seventh. It was the first Giants no-hitter since left-hander

Jonathan Sánchez Jonathan Omar Sánchez (born November 19, 1982), nicknamed "The Kid" and "The Comeback Kid", is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball pitcher. He is one of only three Puerto Rican players to throw a no-hitter game in MLB, the others bein ...

threw one on July 10, 2009, against the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

at AT&T Park. The Astros were no-hit for the fifth time in franchise history, and the first time since Carlos Zambrano threw a no-hitter for the Chicago Cubs on September 14, 2008 at

Miller Park American Family Field is a retractable roof stadium used primarily for baseball. It is located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, just southwest of the intersection of Interstate 94 and Brewers Boulevard. It is the home of Major League Baseball's Milwauk ...

(moved from

Minute Maid Park Minute Maid Park is a retractable roof stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. It opened in 2000 as the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Houston Astros. It has a seating capacity of 41,168, which includes 5,197 club seats and 63 ...

because of Hurricane Ike). It was the second time the Astros were no-hit by the Giants;

Juan Marichal Juan Antonio Marichal Sánchez (born October 20, 1937), nicknamed "the Dominican Dandy", is a Dominican former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for three teams from 1960 to 1975, almost entirely the San Francisco Giant ...

did it on June 15, 1963. It was also the first time in Astros history that no one reached base safely. Cain surpassed his previous personal best of 12 strikeouts in a single game, which he set in 2006. Cain's 125 pitches were the most thrown in a Major League perfect game. The Giants recorded 10 runs, the most by any team in a perfect game. By scoring a run in the 5th inning, Cain became the only pitcher to have scored a run in his perfect game. The final out was made by Astros pinch-hitter Jason Castro. Castro chopped a 1-2 pitch to third base where it was fielded deep behind the bag by third baseman Joaquin Arias. Arias successfully made the long throw across the diamond to first baseman

Brandon Belt Brandon Kyle Belt (born April 20, 1988), nicknamed "Baby Giraffe", "Sparky", and “Captain”, is an American professional baseball first baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the S ...

, who then tucked the ball in his back pocket before joining his teammates on the mound in celebration.

Statistics

Linescore

Box score

FIELDING *DP: Lowrie-Altuve-Wallace. BATTING *2B: Arias, Joa (4, Happ); Posey (13, Happ); Sandoval (7, Cedeno). *HR: Cabrera, Me (5, 1st inning off Happ, 1 on, 1 out); Belt (2, 2nd inning off Happ, 1 on, 0 out); Blanco, G (4, 5th inning off Cruz, R, 1 on, 0 out) *TB: Theriot 2; Sandoval 4; Cain, M; Blanco, G 5; Arias, Joa 2; Belt 5; Posey 3; Cabrera, Me 5. *RBI: Cabrera, Me 2 (31); Belt 3 (22); Blanco, G 3 (15); Sandoval 2 (18). *Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Blanco, G 2; Arias, Joa 3. *SAC: Cain, M. *GIDP: Burriss. *Team RISP: 2-for-10. *Team LOB: 7.

Other info

*HBP: Arias, Joa (by Happ). *Pitches-strikes: Happ 86-53; Cruz, R 28-15; Cedeno 40-29; Cain, M 125-86. *Groundouts-flyouts: Happ 3-0; Cruz, R 3-1; Cedeno 6-1; Cain, M 6-6. *Batters faced: Happ 23; Cruz, R 8; Cedeno 10; Cain, M 27. *Inherited runners-scored: Cruz, R 3-1. *Umpires: HP: Ted Barrett; 1B:

Mike Muchlinski Michael William Muchlinski (; born February 26, 1977) is an American Major League Baseball umpire. He umpired his first Major League game on April 24, 2006, and was officially hired by MLB prior to the 2014 season. Umpiring career Muchlinski ...

; 2B: Angel Campos; 3B: Brian Runge. *Weather: , clear. *Wind: 13 mph, Out to CF *Time: 2:36 *Attendance: 42,298

Reactions

Aftermath

Cain's cleats, hat, uniform, dirt taken from the

pitcher's mound A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is sometimes used, although this usually refe ...

, and a ball from the game will be included in an exhibit in the

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays basebal ...

. All four umpires signed a game ball for Cain, and Belt gave Cain the ball used to record the final out. According to Bill James'

game score Game score is a metric devised by Bill James as a rough overall gauge of a starting pitcher's performance in a baseball game. It is designed such that scores tend to range from 0–100, with an average performance being around 50 points. F ...

statistic, Cain's perfect game tied Sandy Koufax's perfect game for the most dominant modern-era perfect game.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cain, Matt 2012 Major League Baseball season Major League Baseball perfect games San Francisco Giants Houston Astros June 2012 sports events in the United States 2012 in sports in California 2012 in San Francisco Sports competitions in San Francisco