The History of Perfect Games in Major League Baseball

Armando Galarraga got his perfect game wiped away by one bad call, but there are still 24 in the history of the MLB. This is a complete history of perfect games in MLB.

Terms to know:
-GP: Games Pitched
-IP: Innings pitched
-W/L: Pitching Wins/Losses
-ERA: Earned run average: number of runs given up by the pitcher per 9 innings that were not a result of error or passed ball
-SO/K: Strikeouts
-SV: Saves: Games finished by a relief pitcher, under certain circumstances (close enough game, late enough)
-ERA+: Adjusted ERA stat, park and era adjusted, where 100 is league average
-WHIP: Walks and hits per innings pitched: number of walks and hits allowed on average per inning
-FIP: Fielding independent pitching: similar to ERA, but excludes batted balls in the field of play. Uses strikeouts, walks, and home runs.
-WAR: Wins above replacement: player’s value relative to a replacement-level player at their position. fWAR is Fangraphs’ version of war, and rWAR and bWAR are Baseball-Reference’s

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It’s June 2nd 2010 17,7 38 fans file into K Park to watch the Detroit Tigers play and not one of them has any clue they are about to witness history Armando galaraga a 27-year-old starter with a career 4.62 ER will be perfect tonight with one asterisk you will retire every batter he

Faces and be one of the worst blown calls of all time away from the 21st official perfect game in MLB history had it stood it would have gone down as one of the most random Perfect Games the sport had ever seen galaraga pitched just six career Big League seasons and

Finished his career with a 4.78 ER his 2.5 career BW would have been the second lowest of any pitcher to ever throw a perfect game this means it would have been extremely random but being second does mean that there’s a first that we have to talk about there are also the

Other 23 who all had better careers than galaraga perfect games have been thrown by good pitchers Hall of Famers and some guys who weren’t all that good outside of their One Shining Moment but there’s a lot to unpack here so without further Ado here are all 24 perfect games in MLB

History coming onto your screen right now is a timeline featuring every perfect game in MLB history beginning with the first one in 1880 they have been placed across the timeline by year and vertically by the career War of the pitcher who threw it to get things going

We are going to need to start at the very beginning the history of Perfect Games takes us all the way back to the Rutherford B Hayes Administration with a pitcher named Lee Richmond he was worth 11.6 career War but looking into him further makes for a pretty interesting

Story his 1880 stats for the Worchester Ruby legs make for 1880s weirdness and a nutshell every number on here looks completely foreign by modern standards for example if a starter were to have 32 games started in 2023 he would be top 10 in all of baseball Lee Richmond in 1880

Had that many of each kind of decision he also managed to lead the league in games started games finished and saves which is especially notable when you consider that games finished only accounts for games that weren’t started by that pitch does that make it weird that he has more games finished than

Appearances that he didn’t start in yeah but it’s 1880 so let’s move on here are some Lee Richmond stories for your viewing pleasure while we’re at it Richmond was ivy league educated having gone to Brown while he was there he learned a curveball and then was told by

A physics Professor there that it was physically impossible he then made his first pro appearance as a 22-year-old in 1879 for a lofty fee of $10 when he returned to school he still wanted to play baseball it was eventually ruled that he could but no other player who had played professional games was

Allowed to play collegiately after that this ruling set a precedent for amateurism and Collegiate Athletics that continued into the 21st century clearly Richmond was very studious so much so that it factored into his perfect game he was up until 6:30 that morning at some graduation events he then pitched a

Perfect game and then graduated from Brown 4 days later after his retirement he became a teacher now Lee Richmond may have been the first pitcher to ever throw a perfect game but he ended up not even being the best pitcher to throw a perfect game that year it wasn’t even

Really all that close because John Montgomery Ward was a Hall of Famer people talk a lot about sh Otani and Babe Ruth as two-way players and they definitely should talk about them but John Ward did it all first as a hitter he had Seasons leading the league in

Games at bats and stolen bases and as a pitcher he led the league in pretty much every major stat at some point or another his perfect game outd dueling future Hall of Famer PUD Galvin for a 5 nothing win came just 5 days after that

Of Richmond and would be the last in the National League until Jim Bunning did it over 80 years later we’re finally moving into the 20th century and with a name that pretty much everybody knows Sai Young had one of the longest and most successful careers that baseball had

Ever seen probably the best way to show this is in all the career counting numbers that young holds records in these include things that are both good and bad young pitched way more than anybody else he wasn’t only a compiler though because his perfect game was a

Part of one of the most dominant stretches in MLB history it was part of a stretch where young did not give up a run for 45 consecutive Innings or a hit for over 25 both of those numbers were MLB records at the time and only the scoreless inning streak has been passed

Since his career war is high enough that you can’t even see it right now if you wait long enough for it to finally show up Young’s career war is here with MLB’s thirdd perfect game we’re seeing the highest war total on this list and it’s not even close there are other perfect

Games to be had though so let’s move on it took only four years for Young’s perfect game to get followed up by another this one came from another Hall of Famer his name was Addie Jos nicknam the human hairpin the tall starter made the hall in spite of only playing nine

Years in the big leagues in all of those years Jos never posted an erra above his rookie year number of 2.77 his perfect game included only three strikeouts and was completed in just 74 pitches the fewest of any recorded perfect game neither pitcher in the game allowed an earn run as Jos and

His Cleveland naps won one to nothing the game from Addie Joss leaves us with four perfect games featuring three Hall of Famers following that one though there would only be one perfect game for the next 48 years during that time we had the entire careers of Bob Feller Grover Cleveland Alexander Lefty Grove

Carl Hubble and all but one year of Walter Johnson none of them was able to do it though the only pitcher who was was a man named Charlie Robertson in his fourth MLB start 6.4 career worst starter Charlie Robertson threw a perfect game against Hall of Famer Tai

Cob and Harry Hilman this being the one pitcher to achieve this feat over a 48 season stretch just further exemplifies how truly random a perfect game is as good as a pitcher needs to be to throw one what they really need is to be lucky with Robertson’s Perfecto out of the way

Though we skip forward another 34 years to 1956 this is one of the big ones the legendary 1956 World Series perfect game of Don lson for having thrown maybe the most famous perfect game in World Series history the rest of Don Larson’s career was not nearly as smooth his saber

Article introduces him as a bundle of contradictions an imperfect man who disdained training rules and had a mediocre Major League career in spite of having pitched the greatest game in World Series history this description of Larson is spoton his career was extremely mediocre his career ra plus

Was 99 almost exactly League average his best season was probably 1956 but nothing that would ever lead you to expect what came in game five on that day lson had a kind of control that in his own words he had never had in his life the second app out of the game

Against future Hall of Famer Peewee Reese was the only of the game to even get to three balls off of lson against a lineup featuring five Hall of Famers lson retired every batter he faced in just 97 pitches he was the 1956 World Series MVP and to this day has the only

Perfect game in World Series history with larsson’s perfect game there was a new era of perfectos on the horizon suddenly after only a couple for nearly 50 years there would be three perfect games in five and all coming from Hall of Famers in order they were Jim Bunning

Sandy kofax and Catfish Hunter all guys who made the Hall of Fame out of very different paths kofax made the hall off of one of the greatest 5-year Peak runs that baseball had ever seen the other two compiled results over a longer stretch with Hunter’s Hall of Fame case

Also largely resting on postseason success as well Bunning is pretty interesting though because he is someone that I think is pretty under discussed historically for how good he really was he posted six seasons in his career with an RA under three and a seventh still with one under 3.5 the four best of

Those came in his four-year Peak with the Phillies when Bunning posted eras of 2.63 2.60 2.41 and 2.29 back to back to back to back in the last of these Bunning led the league in starts shutouts Innings pitched strikeouts and batters faced he probably should have

Won that Year’s sa young but ended up getting snub for a guy who finished with three hole less war than him it was during his first year in red pin stripes though that Bunning delivered his PA stay resistance it was Father’s Day 1964 and the father of seven threw a perfect

Game against the Mets at Jay Stadium he struck out six of the last nine batters he faced to finish with 10 for the game the most of any perfect game to that point it was a record that would hold for exactly 1 year and 80 days as gray

As he was the exploits of Jim Bunning had nothing on the left arm of God Sanford kofax was one of the most dominant pitchers to ever play baseball here in three pitching Triple Crowns over a 4-year stretch and with those three saong Awards he is the only pitcher since integration to earn the

Triple Crown three times in that time only Roger Clemens has even done it twice he also completed four no hitters during his career the last of which was his perfect game in 1965 kofac struck out 14 Chicago Cubs during that game to this day no one has struck out more than

A perfect game before or since and only once has it been matched it’s quite simply one of the greatest games ever picked pitched looking at it through the lens of game score a bill James metric that rates games based off their stats it’s tied for the fourth best pitching

Performance of all time this one was pure domination and it leads us to Catfish Hunter the last perfect game of the 60s he would go on to become a key cog in the A’s dynasty of the 70s but well before that in the A’s first year in Oakland A 22-year-old Catfish Hunter

Threw a perfect game against the expose the future Hall of Famer struck out 11 you know it doesn’t make sense noan Ryan never threw a perfect game neither did Steve Carlton or Tom Siver you know who did throw one during the 1980s three pitchers named Len Barker Mike wit and

Tom Browning those three combined for Less career War than Kevin apier they were all perfectly fine big Leaguers you also probably wouldn’t ever hear me talking about them if we weren’t talking about perfect games I’m sorry to gloss over them but they are more notable pitches to talk about in the ’90s the

’90s brought with it four perfect games all coming from pitchers who made at least three All-Star appearances and recorded over 40 5 career War the first of these came from Dennis Martinez who had just five strikeouts in his perfect game the only pitcher to have thrown one

With less since 1900 is Addie Jos the pitcher was in his second of three consecutive All-Star Seasons when his perfect game came about he would go on to lead the league in erra shutouts and complete games that year on his way to a fifth place sa young finish a native of

Nicaragua Martinez became the first pitcher born outside the United States to ever throw a perfect game in MLB after Martinez it was 3 years to the day later that that the next perfect game came by Kenny Rogers would start an All-Star Game and finish fifth place in

Sa young voting over a decade later as a 41-year-old in Detroit it was in his late 20s though that his best outing was Unleashed it was July 28th 1994 when Kenny Rogers dominated the lowly 94 angels He was lucky he did it when he did too because just 15 days and three

Starts later the 94 season was ended with the strike the 94 strike knocked out baseball into the 95 season but with the return to play the rest of the ’90s BR two perfect games in 2 years they coincidentally both came from Yankees named David David Wells came first who

In his perfect game year finished behind only Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez for the sa Young Award in spite of that his perfect game feels pretty unlikely when you look back at it I could tell you this story but let’s hear it from the man himself you know it was just you

Know one thing went to another Jimmy Fallon let’s have a drink Seth Myers let’s have a drink so I mean just whole cast and just and everybody there we just started getting after it and you know 5:30 in the morning I didn’t know which way was

Up Wells woke up with a violent hangover but was able to overcome it to strike out 11 Twins and throw over 65% strikes on his way to the 15th perfect game in the MLB and the first ever thrown by a Yankee in the regular season there’s something special about a perfect game

At Yankee Stadium and we were gifted with another the very next year this one’s circumstances made it a lot less unlikely as a as a matter of fact the leadup to this game in many ways foreshadowed what was to come it was Yogi bar Day at Yankee Stadium and the

First pitch was thrown out by Don lson there was a 33-minute rain delay in the third inning but things were otherwise smooth for con against a fourth place Expos Team all things considered con was a pretty reasonable perfect game pitcher he was a former sa young winner two-time

Strikeout leader and would end his career as a five-time World Series champion many would argue that con should have Garner more Hall of Fame consideration but even then even con could not hold a candle to the next game pitcher say what you want about any of the other pitchers in this video but

Randy Johnson is undoubtedly one of the greatest to ever touch a baseball he currently sits as one of four members of the 4,000 strikeout Club only alltime greats Nolan Ryan Roger Clemens and Steve Carlton join him he made it to Second all time in strikeouts despite having less Innings pitched than anyone

Else inside the top 10 on his way to those strikeouts Johnson racked up five Sai Young Awards which is second to only Clemens all time four of them came in a row which is something that only matics can match Johnson in stat for stat Accolade for Accolade there are very few

Pitchers who are even in the same vicinity as The Big Unit this is quite simply one of the most dominant pitchers to ever live in 2004 Johnson was still an electrifying Force finishing second in sa young as a 40-year-old just two years removed from his Sai Young foreat

It was in May of that year that Johnson delivered another career performance pitching against an eventual division-winning Braves team Johnson not only threw a perfect game but finished within one strikeout of Sandy kofax is perfect game strikeout record with this outing Johnson became the oldest pitcher

To ever throw a perfect game in addition to one of the best we would see one more in the 2000s as 5 years after Johnson everyone’s favorite speedrunner took his turn at Perfection Mark Burley was a good pitcher for a pretty long time was he a Hall of Famer probably not but was

He a very good pitcher absolutely with the Burley perfect game Dwayne wise gave us one of the great defensive plays in baseball history that ball hit deep in the left center field wise back back makes a catch the Burley Perfecto brings us to one of the strangest eras in the history

Of ml perfect games to begin the 2010s there were five perfect games in 3 years with this random explosion of perfectos we had games from guys with two of the three lowest career wars in the history of Perfect Games the first of these came on Mother’s Day 2010 when Dallas Braden

Was perfect against the Rays Braden’s mother had passed away from melanoma and he was a senior in high school and the pain of that loss had made the holiday one of personal disdain for bradden he stayed out late the night before his mother’s day start making him hung over

And wait for his start prep the next day he made it to the mound regardless for his start and in turn honored his mother in the best way he possibly could have he only struck out six rays but on May 9th 2010 Dallas Braden was perfect it’s

As heartwarming a story as any in this video and the shot of Braden embracing his grandmother after the game is as good as any you’ll find this game made for the first of Two Perfect Games games in May of 2010 alone and what better way to split two pitchers who combined for

Less than sixth career War than with the first ballot Hall of Famer in 2010 Roy holiday was in his first season in Philadelphia and was in the midst of one of the most successful post- trade seasons of all time not only did he post a league leading 21 wins and an ER under

2.5 but he also recorded two no hitters won a perfect game and won the second postseason no hitter of all time for his performances That season H won the Sai Young Award making him one of just seven pitchers to win one of both leagues it was an absolutely dominant season and

Holiday was at his best on May 29th of that year the dock was perfect against the Marlins striking out 11 and only having to shake off Carlos Ruiz one time it was an all-time great performance from an all-time great pitcher halliday’s 64.2 career BW War ranks him

Third of all pitchers to ever throw Perfect Games behind only sa young and Randy Johnson Armando Gaga’s near perfect game was 3 days later but the next one to get officially finished came in 2012 with the guy with the lowest career war in this entire video Philip

Humber ended his career with an ER over five his 2012 perfect game included was worth negative 1.5 war and an ER pushing 6 and2 this is by far the most random perfect game of all time but what an achievement going into the 2010s there had been two perfect games in a season

Exactly once in the entire history of the achievement 2010 joined that group but 2012 was on an entirely different level Philip Hummer would be the first of three and after him we had two Bonafide Aces Matt kan’s perfect game placed him as the clear front runner for

That year sa young he would end up finishing six but this game ranks out as one of the best performances of all time you match Sandy kofax his perfect game record with 14 strikeouts and in turn matched his fourth place on the game score leaderboard he was pitching

Against a genuinely awful 2012 Astros team that finished last in both record and offense but it still holds up as one of the great stat lines ever produced it’s un fortunate that this game has to share the spotlight with another enter King Felix Felix Hernandez was also a S

Young candidate in 2012 two years after winning the award in 2010 he was really really good in his prime and capped it here with the game of his career he struck out 12 Rays to become the third pitcher to throw a perfect game against Tampa in four years this Ray’s offense

Wasn’t quite as good as the one that had been dominated by Braden or Burley but it was still a team that won 90 games King Felix was able to completely shut them down and ended the game with one of Base both iconic shots the 22 he got him 34 years 119 games it’s

Finally happened a perfect game by a Seattle Manor it was done by the king we had six perfect games in four years then we didn’t have one for over a decade out of all the elite pitchers that come through the game in the 2010s and early

2020s the one to break the seal was dominga Hermon of all things what it took to end an over de decade long perfect game drought was Domingo Hermon and the disaster that was the 2023 A’s he threw 99 pitches and struck out nine Hermon enters 2024 with the second

Lowest war of any perfect game pitcher perfect games are interesting because they happen virtually at random they probably happen more to bad offenses than good ones but they certainly don’t only happen against Bad offenses the average team to have a perfect game thrown against them would finish 20th in

Offense in a 30 team MLB five of them since 1900 have come against top 10 offenses hilariously the best two offenses to ever have a perfect game against them were the raised in back-to-back years 11 of 24 perfect games have come against teams that ended up with winning records and one of them

Tom brownings in 1988 was against the team that won the World Series it’s one of the most exclusive achievements in sports yet it includes the careers of Charlie Robertson and Philip Humber in many ways the perfect game club makes no sense the question is who’s going to be the one to join it

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