John Wasdin's perfect game

On April 7, 2003, John Wasdin, who was a member of minor league baseball's Nashville Sounds, the Triple-A affiliate of Major League Baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates, pitched a perfect game against the Albuquerque Isotopes, the Triple-A affiliate of the Florida Marlins. He retired all 27 batters, striking out 15. The game took place at Herschel Greer Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee.

This was the sixth perfect game and second nine-inning perfect game in the history of the Pacific Coast League (PCL), which was established in 1903. The league's previous perfect game, the first nine-inning perfect game, was pitched by John Halama of the Tacoma Rainiers against the Calgary Cannons on July 7, 2001.

Background

Wasdin's early career

John Wasdin was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the first round of the 1993 Major League Baseball Draft. He quickly rose through the Athletics' minor league system, reaching Triple-A in 1995 and making his major league debut on August 24 of the same year. He spent most of 1996 in Oakland and was traded to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Jose Canseco before the start of the 1997 season. He remained with Boston at the major and minor league levels through 2000. After playing in 2000 and 2001 with the Colorado Rockies and Baltimore Orioles, as well as their Triple-A Rochester Red Wings, Wasdin played with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan's Central League in 2002. In 2003, He was signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as a minor league free agent and assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Up to this point, Wasdin had a career minor league win–loss record of 36–21 with a 3.85 earned run average (ERA), and a major league record of 35–37 with a 5.11 ERA.

2003 season

The 2003 season was Wasdin's eleventh year in professional baseball. Nashville's April 3 game against Albuquerque was the team's fourth game of the 2003 campaign and Wasdin's first start of the season.

Game summary

The game started at 7:01 p.m. in front of 1,946 people at Herschel Greer Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. Wasdin's catcher for the game was Humberto Cota, who was playing his third season with the Sounds and had been a September call-up for the Pirates in the last two seasons. Wasdin struck out all three batters in the first inning to start the game.

Third baseman Mike Gulan made two significant defensive plays to keep Wasdin's perfect game bid intact. The first was the barehanded-fielding of Jesus Medrano's bunt in the top of the fourth inning which he threw to first baseman Adam Hyzdu to get Medrano out by a step at first. The other came in the top of the ninth inning as Gulan made a backhanded catch of Matt Treanor's sharply-hit line drive for the inning's first out. Only the next-to-last hitter, Matt Erickson, worked the count full, before striking out swinging on Wasdin's curveball. Wasdin struck out pinch hitter Rob Stratton, the final batter, on four pitches to complete his perfect game.

In the last four innings, Wasdin set down two batters per inning on strikes. In all, Wasdin struck out 15 batters, matching a team record. Five ground outs and seven fly outs accounted for his other outs in the game. Seventy-two of his 100 pitches were counted as strikes. The game lasted two hours and two minutes.

Wasdin was supported by four Nashville runs scored. The Sounds scored two unearned runs on a pair of errors by Albuquerque shortstop Kevin Hooper and pitcher Nate Teut in the bottom of the second inning. Adam Hydzu doubled the score with a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth.

Game statistics

General reference:

Line score

Box score

Aftermath

Post-game celebrations

Following the final out, Wasdin was mobbed by his teammates at the pitcher's mound. The feat was recognized on Greer Stadium's iconic guitar-shaped scoreboard which read, "PERFECT GAME."

Reactions

Wasdin's post-game season

Wasdin made seventeen more starts for Nashville in 2003, but did not receive a promotion to Pittsburgh. On July 8, he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for Rich Thompson. He appeared in three games for Toronto where he surrendered 13 earned runs and struck out 5 batters in 5 innings of work, giving him a 23.40 ERA. He spent the rest of the season with the Triple-A Syracuse SkyChiefs. His final 2003 Triple-A win–loss record was 10–5 with a 3.38 ERA.

See also

• List of Pacific Coast League no-hitters