During baseball's modern era, 22 pitchers have thrown perfect games. Most were accomplished major leaguers. Seven have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame: Cy Young, Addie Joss, Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax, Catfish Hunter, Randy Johnson, and Roy Halladay.
Necciai is the only professional pitcher to record 27 strikeouts in a nine-inning game, and a ball from that 7-0 win over the Welch Miners – which Necciai donated to the Hall of Fame in 2001 – is on display in the Museum's One for the Books exhibit.
There has been one perfect game in the World Series, thrown by Don Larsen for the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers on October 8, 1956.
In Major League Baseball history twenty-four pitchers have thrown perfect games, including one in the World Series. In addition, two pitchers (Harvey Haddix and Pedro Martinez) have thrown nine perfect innings, only to have their perfect game broken up in extra innings.
Nolan Ryan didn't throw any perfect games in his career.
More than 9,000 men have taken the mound in a big league game, but what pitcher Johnny Vander Meer accomplished more than three quarters of a century ago by tossing back-to-back no-hitters is considered by many one of the game's most unbreakable records.
Nolan Ryan holds the record for no-hitters in the major leagues with seven. A no-hitter is a rare accomplishment for a pitcher or pitching staff—only 320 have been thrown in MLB history since 1876, an average of about two per year.
Rarest of all is the unassisted triple play by an outfielder, performed only once in professional baseball history, by Walter Carlisle. It is possible for a team to score on a triple play, but that is also phenomenally rare.
The rarest achievement for a pitcher is a perfect game, in which not a single player on the opposing team gets on base. Because there are no hits in a perfect game, all perfect games are no-hitters. And it's impossible to score without getting on base, of course, so a perfect game is also a de facto shutout.
"At the beginning of every major-league game, an average pitcher facing a lineup of average hitters has a . 000983 percent chance of pitching a perfect game," according to numbers crunched by smart people in a 2012 SBNATION article. That's about 1 perfect game for every 34 seasons, according to SBNATION.
Of the 21 perfect games for which pitch counts are available, Addie Joss's was the most efficient–74 pitches, fewer than three per batter.
While the vast majority of no-hitters are shutouts, no-hit teams have managed to score runs in their respective games 25 times. Seven times a team has been no-hit and still won the game: two notable victories occurred when the Cincinnati Reds defeated the Houston Colt .
Hayden Deal of the Rome Braves threw perhaps the first two-pitch, three-out inning in MiLB history.
In Game 7 of the 1960 World Series in which the Pirates beat the Yankees 10-9, there were no strikeouts.
Over nearly 145 years of professional baseball, no player was tougher to strike out than Hall of Fame shortstop Joe Sewell. In 7,132 career at-bats, Sewell heard the umpire say “Strike three” just 114 times.
The pitcher's name? Cy Young -- yeah, that guy. On this day 118 years ago, Young gave up his first base hit in over two weeks, snapping a streak of 24 consecutive hitless innings that, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, remains unchallenged as the Major League record.
You've almost certainly never heard of it -- in fact, it very nearly never happened at all. And yet, not a single professional pitcher -- on any field, in any town -- has managed to match Fred Toney's start on May 10, 1909: 17 innings pitched, one walk, 19 strikeouts, no hits.
It was no ordinary no-hitter. It went 17 innings, a feat still unchallenged as the longest no-hit game in professional baseball history. third. He needed everything to outlast Lexington's starter, a newcomer named Baker, making his first effort for the Colts.
#1: Joe Nuxhall at 15 Years, 10 Months and 10 Days
Earning his debut on June 10, 1944 the 15-year-old Nuxhall became the youngest player ever to appear in a Major League game.
The Red Sox' Johnny Damon became the only other major leaguer since 1900 to get three hits in an inning, when Boston whipped the Florida Marlins, 25-8, on June 27, 2003. Damon collected a single, double, and triple in the first inning as Boston scored a record 10 runs before recording an out.
In the American League, the longest 0–0 game was played between the Washington Senators and Detroit Tigers on July 16, 1909. The game was called after 18 innings due to darkness at Bennett Park in Detroit.
Thus, tales of Nolan Ryan's 108.1 mph fastball in 1974 or Bob Feller's 107.6 mph pitch in 1946 remain unofficial. After spending multiple seasons with the New York Yankees, Chapman recently finalized a one-year deal with the Kansas City Royals for the 2023 season.
May 1, 1991: 44 year-old Nolan Ryan throws his 7th career no hitter, blanking the Blue Jays 3-0, becoming the oldest player in MLB history ever to throw a no-hitter.
On the same day that Rickey Henderson broke Lou Brock's all-time steals record, Nolan Ryan made history as well, recording his major league record seventh no-hitter. On May 1, 1991, at the age of 44, Ryan became the oldest player to register a no-hitter.