Dallas Braden,Oakland Athletics lefty, fired a perfect game against the visiting Tampa Bay Rays in a 4-0 victory. It was the 19th perfect game in major league history and only the 18th victory of Braden’s career. Braden recently gained a measure of fame when he criticized the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez for breaking the number one unspoken rule of crossing the mound after a foul ball, considered a major break with baseball etiquette.
Braden threw his perfect game on 109 pitches. He retired Gabe Kapler on a grounder to shortstop Cliff Pennington for the final out. In Chicago last July, Kapler was also the last out hitting a deep fly ball in the ninth inning against he White Sox . DeWayne Wise corralled the ball at the wall, saving Mark Buehrle’s perfect game.
Braden, 26, is the youngest pitcher to throw a perfect game since the Angels’ Mike Witt in 1984, when he was 24. The last pitcher with fewer career victories at the time of his perfect game was Charlie Robertson, whose 1922 gem for the White Sox was his second career win.