On August 15, 2012,

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion team ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, who attempts to e ...

Félix Hernández Félix Abraham Hernández García (born April 8, 1986), nicknamed "King Félix", is a Venezuelan former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners from 2005 through 2019. On August 15, 2 ...

pitched the 23rd perfect game in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

(MLB) history and the first in Mariners' franchise history. Pitching to catcher John Jaso against the

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home v ...

Safeco Field T-Mobile Park is a retractable roof stadium in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners and has a seating capacity of 47,929. It is in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood, near the weste ...

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, Hernández retired all 27 batters that he faced and tallied 12

strikeouts In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

in a 1–0 victory. This was the third perfect game of the

2012 Major League Baseball season The 2012 Major League Baseball season began on March 28 with the first of a two-game series between the Seattle Mariners and the Oakland Athletics at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. On November 22, 2011, a new contract between Major League Baseball an ...

, following perfect games thrown by

Philip Humber Philip Gregory Humber (; born December 21, 1982) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He pitched for the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox, and Houston Astros in seven seasons in Major League ...

and

Matt Cain Matthew Thomas Cain (born October 1, 1984), nicknamed "The Horse", "Big Daddy", "Big Sugar" and "Cainer", is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career for the San Francisco Giants ...

, marking the first time that three perfect games were thrown in one MLB season. Also, as the Mariners were the losing team in Humber's perfect game, this was the first time that a team was on the losing and winning end of a perfect game in the same season. As

Philip Humber's perfect game Philip Humber of the Chicago White Sox pitched a perfect game against the Seattle Mariners by retiring all 27 batters he faced on Saturday, April 21, 2012, as the White Sox defeated the Mariners 4–0. It was the 21st perfect game in Maj ...

took place when the White Sox were visiting Safeco Field, this marked the first time two perfect games were thrown in the same park in the same season. It was also the second time in 2012 that the Mariners had pitched a

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher w ...

at Safeco Field; they pitched a combined no-hitter on June 8, beating the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brookly ...

, also 1–0, making it the first time that a team pitched a combined no-hitter and complete game no-hitter in the same season. It also marked the third time the Tampa Bay Rays had been on the receiving end of a perfect game in four seasons, having previously failed to reach first base against Dallas Braden in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

and

Mark Buehrle Mark Alan Buehrle (; born March 23, 1979) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played the majority of his Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the Chicago White Sox, playing twelve seasons for the team and winning the World S ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Evan Longoria Evan Michael Longoria (born October 7, 1985), nicknamed "Longo", is an American professional baseball third baseman who is a free agent. He previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Tampa Bay Rays from 2008 through 2017, and the S ...

Carlos Peña Carlos Felipe Peña (born May 17, 1978) is a Dominican former professional baseball first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays, C ...

, Melvin Upton, Jr., and

Ben Zobrist Benjamin Thomas Zobrist (; born May 26, 1981), is an American former professional baseball second baseman and outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Tampa Bay Rays, Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays, Oakland Athletics, Kansas City R ...

all played for the Rays in all three games, tying

Alfredo Griffin Alfredo Claudino Baptist Read Griffin (born October 6, 1957) is a Dominican former professional baseball player. He played shortstop in Major League Baseball (MLB) for four teams from 1976 to 1993. Playing career Griffin began his career as a m ...

's dubious mark for most losing perfect games played in.

The game

Hernández threw 113 pitches, 77 of them

strikes Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

, striking out the side in the sixth and the eighth innings. Jeremy Hellickson, the starting pitcher for Tampa Bay, allowed one run in seven innings on a

run batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

single by

Jesús Montero Jesús Alejandro Montero López (born November 28, 1989) is a Venezuelan former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners. Signed by the Yankees in 2006, Montero ...

in the third

inning In baseball, softball, and similar games, an inning is the basic unit of play, consisting of two halves or frames, the "top" (first half) and the "bottom" (second half). In each half, one team bats until three outs are made, with the other tea ...

. Rays

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

Joe Maddon Joseph John Maddon (born February 8, 1954) is an American former professional baseball manager and coach. He has managed the Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago Cubs, and Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball. Maddon began his coaching career in MLB ...

was ejected from the game in the seventh inning for arguing a called strike with the home plate

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

Rob Drake Robert Paul Drake (born May 24, 1969) is an American umpire in Major League Baseball. He was named to the Major League staff in 2010, and wears uniform number 30. Umpiring career Drake was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and has worked in both ...

Statistics

Linescore

Box score

FIELDING *E: Johnson, E (10, fielding). *DP: Zobrist-Pena, C. BATTING *2B: Jaso (14, Hellickson). *TB: Ryan, B; Montero, J; Jaso 2; Ackley; Robinson, T. *RBI: Montero, J (46). *2-out RBI: Montero, J. *Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Thames; Seager, K. *Team RISP: 1-for-3. *Team LOB: 5. BASERUNNING *SB: Ryan, B (9, 2nd base off Hellickson/Lobaton).

Other info

* LP: Hellickson. * Pitches-strikes: Hellickson 115–73; Farnsworth 15–9; Hernández, F 113–77. * Groundouts-flyouts: Hellickson 10–5; Farnsworth 0–1; Hernández, F 8–5. * Batters faced: Hellickson 27; Farnsworth 3; Hernández, F 27. * Ejections: Rays manager

(by HP umpire Rob Drake, 7th inning). * Umpires: HP:

; 1B: Joe West; 2B:

Sam Holbrook Samuel Woodford Holbrook (born July 7, 1965) is an American umpire in Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 1996 and became a crew chief in 2017. Holbrook wears number 34. Umpiring career Sam Holbrook began his umpiring career i ...

; 3B: Andy Fletcher. * Weather: , sunny. * Wind: 4 mph, in from CF. * Time: 2:22. * Attendance: 21,889. * Venue:

References