Giant Moment, Cain Pitches First Perfecto For San Francisco Giants.
Wednesday night in front of a crowd just shy of 43,000, right-hander Matt Cain threw the first perfect game for the San Francisco Giants against the Houston Astros. This game saw a pair of great plays late in the game where the perfection was almost spoiled. First in the 6th inning, Melky Cabrera made a big leaping catch at the wall after chasing down a one-out fly ball by Chris Snyder. Then in the 7th inning, Jordan Schafer hit one deep into right center but Gregor Blanco made a spectacular diving catch into the warning track to rob him of the double. In the 9th inning with 2 outs left, pinch-hitter Jason Castro grounded a ball to third and that was all she wrote. This marked the 22nd perfect game in league history and first in the 128 years of the Giants Franchise, formerly the New York Giants and New York Gothams. Cain had a career high 14 strikeouts tying Sandy Koufax for the most ever in a perfect game; but also had 125 pitches, making it the most ever in a perfect game. While Cain is pitching with an ERA of 2.18 and already having 8 wins in 10 plate appearances; the Giants currently hold the wild card in the NL and are behind the league’s best Los Angeles Dodgers 3 1/2 games in the division. The All-Star break is still a few weeks away (yes, still another 1/2 season left) and we’ve already seen 2 perfect games and a total of 5 no-hitters this season so far. Cain now joins Philip Humber, who also threw a perfect game; the six Seattle Mariners, Jered Waver and Johan Santana who also have no-hitters this season. This is the most no-hitters baseball has seen since 1990 and 1991 with the record set at 7.
San Francisco 10, Houston 0 | Cain (8-2) | Happ (4-7)
Bonus | Web Gems: Perfect Catch