This one is the gold standard – the only losing nine-inning no-hitter thrown by one pitcher.
Johnson was cruising until the top of the ninth, when Pete Rose reached on an error (and advanced to second) due to an errant throw by Johnson himself. The next batter, Chico Ruiz, grounded out, moving Rose over to third. But even that was not run-of-the-mill, as the grounder went off Johnson’s shin. Johnson remained in the game and the next batter, Vada Pinson, hit a grounder to second baseman Nellie Fox that could’ve ended the inning, but Fox misplayed the ball and Rose scored. Johnson got Frank Robinson to fly out (yes, Robinson was involved in two no-hitters that resulted in a loss), and the top of the ninth was over. The Colt .45s got a baserunner in the bottom of the ninth when Pete Runnels reached on an error, but couldn’t get him across to tie the game.
Perfect game through 9 innings. In the tenth under the current (stupid) rules, runner starts on second. He advances to third on a ground out and scores on a sacrifice fly leading to a 1-0 loss for the picture who was perfect in not permitting a batter to reach first base. Is this a perfect game?
And not an ordinary one - it was stunningly bad. The runner was more than 2 ft from the base when the pitcher stepped on first with the ball cleanly in his glove. It’s roughly equivalent to calling a third strike on a pitch in the dirt.
In view of the circumstances, this belongs among baseball’s top 10 worst calls of all time.
Pedro Martinez is also a victim of MLB’s jerkishness. On June 3, 1995, he threw a perfect 9 innings but lost the no-no (though not the game) in the 10th.
I think the full nine inning and beyond (lost) no-hitters should be restored with the pitcher getting credit for a no-hitter to the last hitless inning. Maybe put those in a special section with notations.
Also, there was Ernie Shore pitching in relief getting 26 batters in a row after a baserunner(walked by Babe Ruth who was thrown out for arguing the call) was caught stealing. Special notation for that but he deserves credit.
There were two other times that relief pitchers threw nine full innings of no-hit ball that should be recognized.
Only Carlos Delgado’s four homer game in 2003 was truly perfect; he only came to the plate four times, and he homered in all of them. Every other 4-homer player batted at least five times.
Delgado is the only player in major league history to play an entire nine inning game and homer every time he came up. So in a sense, he has the only batter’s perfect game.
The very best game a hitter has ever had might have been Shawn Green’s 2002 epic with the Dodgers, when he went six for six with four homers, a double, and a single. But that’s not quite PERFECT.
