BVSA Sports Show: Episode 24
BVSA Sports Show: Episode 24
Frank – The first thing we got to talk about is a major event, and this happened about a week ago now, actually a week ago from today. Domingo German threw the 24th perfect game in MLB history, and we got a video of that, the last out of that game. It’s been 3969 days since the last perfect game thrown in the MLB, and in that time, there are 31 individual no-hitters as well as nine combined no-no’s, so that just tells you how rare a perfect game is. In that time since the last perfect game, there have been 31 no-hitters by individuals and nine combined ones, so 40 in total. Pretty crazy if you ask me.
So that was the fourth perfect game thrown by a New York Yankee, making it the most by any team overall. They pass the Chicago White Sox, who were tied with three a piece. They get ahead of them with four. They had one thrown by Cone, one thrown by Don Larsen, obviously in the World Series in 1956, and the last one was David Wells. So the A’s become the first team in MLB history to have thrown two perfect games. One was by Catfish Hunter in 1968, and the other was by Dallas Braden in 2010. And they’ve also had two perfect games thrown against them, obviously Domingo German last weekend, and Cy Young threw the first ever recorded perfect game against the Oakland Athletics, or actually, at that point, the Philadelphia Athletics in 1904. Pretty crazy stuff. It was the first perfect game in 11 years since Felix Hernandez did it in 2012 for the Seattle Mariners. And as I mentioned before, Dallas Braden threw a perfect game, and Dallas Braden was on the call for NBC Sports California, the A’s broadcast, making it the first time in history anybody has thrown a perfect game and also called one in the broadcast booth. So, Dallas, pretty cool right there. This is the third time a perfect game was thrown in the Oakland Coliseum, tying it with the old Yankee Stadium for the most perfect games thrown in one venue ever in MLB history. Most runs scored by a team throwing a perfect game as the Yankees shut out the A’s 11-0, and it was 99 pitches thrown by German in that game, making it a Maddox game. So a Maddox Perfecto, which is the first Maddox Perfecto since Philip Humber, which was the first of those three perfect games that happened in 2012. Interestingly, 51 of Herman’s 99 pitches were curveballs, and he finished the game with nine strikeouts.
Crazy enough, with so many great Dominican-born players and pitchers over the years, Pedro Martinez is the first one that comes to my mind. It’s the first no-hitter of any kind thrown by a Dominican-born player. Pretty great for that, pretty crazy.
Another crazy fact: before the game, the A’s had the longest active streak in the major leagues without getting no-hit. They hadn’t been no-hit since July 13th of 1991, and they come up and get a perfect game thrown against them. So that shows you how the A’s season is going. That’s another just crazy thing going on. So a lot of crazy facts about that perfect game. The first one in 11 years, a long time coming. It was the second-longest drought in between perfect games ever. So pretty crazy stuff there.
Another crazy thing that just happened this week, it feels like we have to talk about this, but it’s just inevitable: Shohei Ohtani, the inevitable Shohei Ohtani had another unprecedented week, even for his standards. He had six home runs in the week to cap off a 15-home run June, which is, let me put that 15-home run June in perspective. So last year, Aaron Judge, he broke the American League home run record, right, and he never had even a 14-home run month, let alone a 15-home run month. What Shohei Ohtani just did in that month hadn’t been done by an AL player since 1961, and that was Roger Maris the year that he set that record that Judge ended up breaking last year. So he’s in unprecedented territory, and he pitches. So yeah, we’re gonna go into that now. He pitches, right? He had a two-home run game in a game while he was pitching. He pitched six innings of two-run baseball and had 10 strikeouts. And, yeah, he hit two home runs at the plate. That shouldn’t be a fair thing. Shohei Ohtani, you continue to amaze every single day, and somehow, he just continues to get better and better and better. But last night, he gave up back-to-back home runs for the first time in his MLB career on back-to-back pitches, nonetheless, and he immediately came out of the game. He had a cracked finger, a cracked fingernail issue, but now it’s a blister, and he was pulled this for the second straight time. His start had been cut short. So that’s something to look out for there. But still, he’s got the All-Star break coming up, so he’ll have a little bit of time to rest up. Hopefully, he’ll get back on track for his next start after the All-Star break, and everything will be looking good there. So Shohei Ohtani, maybe a minor setback, but still, the absolute freak that we all know and love. Oh, and one other thing, I didn’t forget about him. He hit a 493-foot home run last week, the longest home run in the majors. I forgot about that one. How about that? It’s one of those six home runs of the week. It was 493 feet. What an absolute freak. And now he was selected to his third straight All-Star game as both a pitcher and a hitter for the third straight year. Nobody else has ever been elected as both a pitcher and hitter ever. Babe Ruth? No, no, no, no, no, no. Shohei Ohtani, three times. And that’s it. Nobody else ever. So what an unbelievable freak.
So moving on, we’re gonna go to one of my favorite settings because I’m a former outfielder. I’m an outfielder, so I always gotta love the outfield play a little bit more than most, I’d say. So we’re gonna get to our outfield play of the week. Last week, it was George Springer. This week, I think it was Cedric Mullins. Cedric Mullins made one of the most unbelievable catches I’ve seen all season, and I was watching this play two days ago. I was watching this play upstairs here at my house, and I screamed like my parents thought I was like something was wrong. I screamed. It was unbelievable. Cedric Mullins ran from shade a little bit towards left center field. Byron Buxton smoked one to right center, and he went on a dead sprint, took a couple peeks at the wall, a couple peeks, took one last check, and jumped up and made a backhanded catch up against the wall just at the last second. As soon as he made contact with the wall, he made the catch. It was unbelievable. I don’t know how he made that play. And it was very, very similar to a play that Ken Griffey Jr. made back in, I believe it was 1995. I’m not sure. Don’t quote me on that, but they pulled it up in the broadcast, and we’re gonna pull it up here for you too. This play is almost identical, and Griffey actually broke his wrist on this play, but it shows how great he was, sacrificing his body to make unbelievable plays. But Cedric Mullins, this is pretty much an identical play to the Ken Griffey play that he made years ago. So Cedric Mullins, props to you, looking like Griffey out there, looking like the kid. Maybe flip that hat around backward for me. All right, so there it is for our weekly recap, and now we’re gonna move into the All-Star Weekend segment.
For more information from Frank on the MLB All-Star Weekend activities click the video below!
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