Thursday, August 16, 2012

Felix Felicitas

King Felix Hernandez earned his moniker for the Seattle Mariners as he retired 27 in a row for a perfect game on an idle Wednesday afternoon at Safeco Field.

The 2010 AL Cy Young Award winner has long talked of his desire to achieve pitching perfection. He finally accomplished it against the Rays, striking out the side twice and finishing with 12 strikeouts.

It was the third perfect game in baseball this season -- a first -- joining gems by Chicago's Philip Humber against the Mariners in April and San Francisco's Matt Cain versus Houston in June.

 More than half of all perfectos -- 12 -- have come in the last 25 seasons.This also was the sixth no-hitter in the majors this season, three of them at Safeco Field. Humber threw his gem in Seattle, then six Mariners pitchers combined to hold the Los Angeles Dodgers hitless at the park on June 8. Prior to Wednesday, no team has ever had a combined no-hitter and a complete game no-hitter in the same season.

For the Rays, it was an all-too-familiar feeling. This was the third time in four seasons they had a perfect game pitched against them, following efforts by Dallas Braden in 2010 and Mark Buehrle in 2009. They've been no-hit four times over the past four seasons.

The lesson here is clear:  Every MLB game can be one for the record books, and if the Rays come to town, you should go, just in case you want to cross something off your bucket list.  Congrats to Felix and the Mariners, certainly.

Somebody ought to do some charts on the number of perfect games thrown during the Obama administration, just saying.

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