MLB Nears 10 Years Without a Perfect Game

“The only thing is I don’t know why Eric Chavez didn’t swing at two pitches before. In that moment, I thought, ‘Something’s wrong here,’ because 25, 26 guys before him swing automatically. I know it’s a veteran guy, but he didn’t swing at two good pitches. For me, I said, ‘Wow, I have to live or die here.’ I know it was my last chance because I want to win everything, I want the perfect game, so I don’t want to walk him. It was 3-2, and I want to throw my best pitch.”

Petit had thrown only 92 pitches. He tried to finish his masterpiece with a fastball, down and away, but Chavez pulled it on a line, just in front of the glove of the diving right fielder, Hunter Pence. Petit retired the next hitter for the only shutout of his career, and a year later, mostly as a reliever, he set a major league record by retiring 46 batters in a row.

Of course, because Petit did that over several weeks, the major leagues’ streak without a perfect game continued. And while strikeout rates have exploded in recent years — meaning fewer balls in play, and thus fewer chances for errors or fluke hits — the drought persists.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/04/sports/baseball/perfect-games.html