Levine: Matt Cain And Perfection

Following a performance like Matt Cain's on Wednesday night, the Internet fills up with things written about it. Many of them are good, many of them are bad, and many of them are in between. Many of them are written by people coming from the player's team's perspective. Many of them are written by people coming from an outside perspective. But things are still written by people coming from the other team's perspective as well. In order for there to be a historic performance, there has to be an opponent against which the history is achieved.

Zachary Levine writes for the Houston Chronicle, and he was on hand at AT&T Park Wednesday to watch 27 Astros bat and 27 Astros make outs. He had to write about the game, because that's his job, and one of the things he wrote is right here, on a site called Ultimate Astros. It is fantastic, and I will quote from it.

SAN FRANCISCO - The Astros had gone 50 years and 61 games without ever witnessing perfection, and suddenly it was all around them. An unforgettable first encounter to forget.

Perfection was far more than just Matt Cain bludgeoning them 125 times over from 60 feet, 6 inches away in throwing the 22nd perfect game in major league history. No, perfection took on many forms far more subtle.

On a perfect night on San Francisco Bay, the jumbo ballpark was the perfect size - a couple of feet of imperfection, and Chris Snyder has a home run.

The bases were a perfect distance apart, a couple of inches closer to home, and first base swallows up a Jordan Schafer smash for a hit rather than a disputed foul ball.

And at the moment most vulnerable to imperfection, Schafer's drive in the seventh inning headed toward the warning track, perfection swooped back into the picture with Gregor Blanco's catch that would have been one of the plays of the year no matter the stakes.

That's the beginning. I almost quoted the end instead, but I didn't want to spoil it. You should click through, and you should get there on your own. If you haven't read Levine already, now's the time, before Cain's perfection ceases to feel current and slips into memory.

Aubrey Huff Injured In Celebration

Aubrey Huff was excited for Matt Cain after the perfect game on Wednesday. He was a little too excited.

With Perfecto, Matt Cain Loses 'Unluckiest Pitcher' Crown

Even with his 77-75 career record, are we still allowed to call Matt Cain "unlucky"?

Matt Cain Praises Teammates Following Perfect Game

When a pitcher tosses a perfect game, he becomes the center of attention for understandable reasons. But when the media converged on Matt Cain following his perfect game Wednesday night, he was quick to praise his teammates -- especially catcher Buster Posey.

"I can't thank Buster enough," said Cain, according to MLB.com. "I didn't even question him once. What he was calling, I was going to throw whatever he wanted and I was going to let him go. Buster did an unbelievable job back there. That was tremendous."

Cain was also quick to highlight the defense behind him which made a couple of stellar outfield catches, including one by Gregor Blanco in the seventh inning.

"Obviously we can talk about the sixth inning or the seventh inning, but those were two unbelievable catches," said Cain. "That changes the whole thing. Obviously the defense behind me, the guys were able to give huge run support and I was able to go out and pitch comfortably."

For more on Cain's perfect game and the San Francisco Giants, visit McCovey Chronicles and SB Nation Bay Area.

VIDEO: The Final Play Of Matt Cain's Perfect Game

Here’s video of the final play of Wednesday night’s perfect game by the Giants’ Matt Cain:

That play, carried off by third baseman Joaquin Arias and first baseman Brandon Belt, wasn’t as easy as it looked. The ball was sharply hit and Arias took a stutter-step before throwing to first for the final out to complete the perfect game; the throw beat baserunner Jason Castro by a couple of steps.

This came after two other fine outfield plays that helped save perfection, one by Melky Cabrera, another by Gregor Blanco (the latter a spectacular dive onto the warning track). You often see plays like this save no-hitters or perfect games (DeWayne Wise’s in Mark Buehrle’s perfect game in 2009 is the gold standard for these), and Wednesday night was no exception.

For more on Cain’s perfect game, please visit McCovey Chronicles and SB Nation Bay Area.

Matt Cain's Perfect Game: Are Perfect Games Becoming Commonplace?

The Giants’ Matt Cain threw a perfect game Wednesday night against the Astros; it was the 22nd such game in major-league history and one of the most dominating performances among them, with 14 strikeouts.

Perfect games used to be rare, but in recent seasons we have almost come to expect them. Let’s look at the distribution of perfect games by decade:

1880s: 2
1890s: 0
1900s: 2
1910s: 0
1920s: 1
1930s: 0
1940s: 0
1950s: 1
1960s: 3
1970s: 0
1980s: 3
1990s: 4
2000s: 2
2010s: 4

Discounting the two in 1880 — pitched within five days of each other under different rules and conditions — there were two in the first decade of the 20th Century, and then just one from Addie Joss’ in October 1908 until Don Larsen’s in the World Series in 1956, a 48-year span.

It’s now been almost exactly 48 years since Jim Bunning threw one against the Mets June 21, 1964, and including that one, there have been 16 perfect games in that time period.

Commonplace? Perhaps not, but now we’ve seen five in the last three years. Run-scoring is down in general and we appear to be in the midst of a pitcher-dominated era. There have been five no-hitters already in 2012.

Prediction: there will be more perfect games sooner, rather than later.

Matt Cain's Closest Call?

As Matt Cain twirled the first perfect game in Giants history, he couldn't have done it without some breaks. He probably got the benefit of the doubt a few times with borderline strikes, especially once he got going. In the seventh inning, Gregor Blanco made an absolutely sensational diving catch to rob Jordan Schafer of extra bases. Had some of the ball/strike calls been different, Cain might've lost the perfect game. Had Blanco not flagged that drive down, Cain would've lost the perfect game and the no-hitter. There's almost always a catch like that in a game like this, and Blanco was responsible for the catch tonight.

There was another break, though, leading off the top of the fourth. Before anybody started taking seriously the idea that Matt Cain could make history. Jordan Schafer lined a ball foul down the first-base line. It might have been foul, or it might not have been. These still and moving images are not very helpful:

Mike Muchlinski called it foul, and Schafer didn't argue. Brad Mills argued, but not for long, and not with much vigor. Schafer would go on to make an out, as everybody did.

With Johan Santana's no-hitter, we have solid proof that a fair ball was ruled foul. Here, we don't have that proof, as there's no compelling evidence to point either way. Muchlinski was the closest umpire to the ball, and he called it foul, which is meaningful. There's not going to be any controversy surrounding Cain's perfect game. But as this play shows, baseball is, as it's always been, a game of inches. Or units of measurement smaller than inches.

Matt Cain Perfect Game In Headlines

Did you know that Giants pitcher Matt Cain has a name that's convenient and versatile for purposes of wordplay? I bet you did not, but after Cain threw a perfect game against the Astros in San Francisco Wednesday night, headline editors seized the opportunity they'd been given. Below, a limited collection of results, culled from the Internet. I would've culled from newspapers, too, but none of them have arrived yet on my doorstep. Great sustainable business model in the 21st century, newspapers.

From ESPN:

From CBS:

From Sports Illustrated:

(This isn't a Cain pun, but it is a pun, so.)

From MLB.com:

From elsewhere on MLB.com:

From still elsewhere on MLB.com:

From CNN:

Oh, geez, it's like it's not even important to them. Well excuse me, your majesty, sorry to bother you with perfection. I'll let you get back to talking about how it's important to express yourself to your doctor if he or she recommends something of which you're uncertain. Like that's something anybody needs to know.

Matt Cain Perfect Game Keeps It Simple

Given two pitchers, one of whom is great and the other of whom is not great, obviously the great pitcher will have the better odds of throwing a perfect game. That is so obvious that I can't believe I'm even typing this out.

Here's the thing, though: baseball's got a lot more not-great pitchers than it does great pitchers. So while you can try to predict who's going to throw the next perfect game, most of the time you're going to be wrong. Nobody would've predicted Philip Humber, even against the Mariners. Nobody would've predicted Dallas Braden. Plenty of people would've predicted Roy Halladay, but nobody, not nobody would've predicted Armando Galarraga, and I do count that one. Hell, Galarraga generated one more out than all the other guys.

If you were to sit and try to predict the next perfect game a few days ago, though, Matt Cain would've or should've been near the top of the list. Especially if he were starting at home. What's a more obvious measure of perfect-game likelihood than on-base percentage against? By that very simple measure, dating back to 2009, Matt Cain has allowed a .265 OBP when pitching in San Francisco. That's the fourth-lowest mark in all of baseball, behind Jered Weaver, Ted Lilly, and Justin Verlander. Weaver already threw a no-hitter at home this season. I'm going to go ahead and conveniently ignore Lilly. Verlander flirts with a no-hitter or perfection just about every time he takes the mound.

There's something about Matt Cain that allows him to surrender fewer baserunners than you'd expect, particularly within AT&T Park. That quality gave him some of the highest perfect-game odds in the league. They still weren't good odds, but they were higher odds than most. Wednesday, Matt Cain threw a perfect game within AT&T Park.

Sometimes these things come completely out of nowhere. Sometimes they do not.

FanGraphs: Matt Cain's Place In History

Wednesday night, Matt Cain threw a perfect game against the Astros. Coming into the season, we expected dozens of guys to throw perfect games against the Astros, but they've been better than most people thought they'd be, and Cain didn't just shut down a Little League team. Kudos to the Astros for being okay, and anti-kudos to the Astros for being perfect game'd.

In a season that's already seen another perfect game, some no-hitters, and several close calls -- including one from Cain himself -- maybe this game doesn't stand out as much in your head as it should. Maybe you're growing weary of these spectacular achievements. Not because you want to, but because we've had so many of them. In that event, it's worth removing this start from a season context and placing it in a historical context.

Hello there, FanGraphs. Dave Cameron cites Game Score, a flawed but convenient statistic that measures single-game pitching performances. I'll quote:

Before tonight, only nine pitchers had ever racked up a game score of 100 or better in nine innings. It was more common back when starters kept going when a game went to extras, but we want to compare apples to apples, so those are out. Sorted by Game Score — an imperfect measure, for certain, but one that does okay for this purpose — here are the 10 best nine inning performances of all time.

In terms of raw performance, this matches Sandy Koufax’s perfect game from 1965 as the best perfecto ever, and matches one of Nolan’s Ryan no-hitters where he did most of the work himself. The only nine inning game in history with a higher game score was Kerry Wood’s 20 strikeout one-hitter. It’s pretty amazing that most of us were alive to see both.

Matt Cain finished with a Game Score of 101, thanks to his zero baserunners and 14 strikeouts. You can quibble with Game Score all you want, but even ignoring the formula, just based on results, Cain turned in one of the very best pitching performances in the history of baseball. We knew that, since he threw a perfect game, but this was better than most perfect games. This was practically approaching perfect-perfect, the impossible standard at which a pitcher strikes out everyone he sees. Cain didn't do that, but he did better than half of that.

Matt Cain Perfect Against Astros

PITCHERS RULE!

Seems like it this year, anyway.

Wednesday night, the Mets' R.A. Dickey capped the greatest five-start run in the history of knuckleball pitchers with a one-hitter to beat the Tampa Bay Rays.

Dickey was just a warm-up act.

Later in the evening, the Giants' Matt Cain tossed a perfect game against the Astros. It was Major League Baseball's second perfect game this season, and the fifth no-hitter (including last week's combined no-hitter thrown by Seattle's Kevin Millwood and thirteen relief pitchers).

Cain had a couple of close calls.

In the top of the fourth inning, Jordan Schafer led off and pulled a shot down the first-base line. First-base umpire Mike Muchlinski immediately called it foul, but replays suggest the ball might just have crossed the corner of the bag. Only FIELDf/x knows for sure (and he's not talking).

In the seventh, it was Schafer again. This time he drove a long fly ball toward the gap in right-center field, a long ways from any San Francisco gardener. But right fielder Gregor Blanco got a good jump, and went airborne at the warning track, in a headlong dive, to make the catch. Cain threw up his hands, then tipped his cap to Blanco.

In comparison, the eighth and ninth innings were uneventful. Until the end, anyway.

With one out in the eighth, Cain struck out Brett Wallace for his 14th strikeout to set a new career high.

In the ninth, all three outs were routine (at least for someone watching on television). Brian Bogusevic and Chris Snyder both lofted easy flies to left fielder Melky Cabrera, and pandemonium broke out when pinch-hitter Jason Castro hit a grounder to third baseman Joaquin Arias, who'd been inserted earlier for his defense.

Arias snagged the ball, then threw hard and true to Brandon Belt at first base to complete the perfect game.

Oh, and the Giants won 10-0.

Matt Cain Perfect Through 8 Innings

Wednesday night in San Francisco, Matt Cain has pitched eight perfect innings against the Houston Astros.

In the top of the eighth, J.D. Martinez led off with a ground ball to third base, where Joaquin Arias handled it. Next, Cain struck out Brett Wallace for his 14th strikeout; he'd already set a career best in the seventh inning, with his 13th K. And Cain made it 24 up and 24 down by retiring Chris Johnson on a grounder to shortstop Brandon Crawford.

Cain's thrown 114 pitches through eight innings, and it's now apparent that he'll be given a shot at finishing what would be the first no-hitter (and perfect game) of his career. Oh, and the Giants took a 10-0 lead into the bottom of the eighth.

Before the eighth inning, there were two exceptionally close calls.

In the fourth, Jordan Schafer hit a screaming grounder down the first-base line, but according to the umpire -- and granted, he had the best look at it -- the ball went foul just before crossing the bag.

And in the seventh, Schafer got robbed again. This time he drove a pitch to deep right-center field, where Gregor Blanco somehow snared the ball with a headlong dive that left him prone on the warning track.

Matt Cain Perfect Through 7

Matt Cain has thrown three one-hitters in his career, coming close but never getting the elusive no-hitter. Through seven innings in San Francisco on Monday, Matt Cain has not allowed a baserunner. And -- ho, man -- did he need some help getting there.

Jordan Schafer led off the seventh and worked Cain to a full count. On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Schafer hit a ball to right-center that probably would have left most of the ballparks in either league. Right fielder Gregor Blanco, though, made a diving catch almost in centerfield. Every no-hitter or perfect game has one of these plays.

Cain then struck out Jose Altuve looking for the second out, and then ended the inning striking out Jed Lowrie with a changeup, which gave Cain a career high in strikeouts with 13.

If there's a concern for Cain, it's his pitch count, which stands at 103 after the seventh. Cain's career high is 131, though, and Bruce Bochy isn't shy about stretching Cain out a little bit.

Matt Cain Perfect Through 6 Innings