Life

Matt Cain Pitches First Perfect Game In Giants History

The San Francisco Giants have a long and illustrious past. They were the first franchise to get to 10,000 wins. They were once so good they refused to play in the World Series because they “considered the new American League as little more than a minor league.” They are the team responsible for “The Shot Heard Round The World” which is one of the most famous sports calls in history. But, for all of their accolades, there is one thing that had never been done in the 130 year history of the San Francisco Giants.

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On Wednesday night Matt Cain became the first Giants pitcher in their 130 year history to pitch a perfect game. Earlier this year the big story for Cain was whether or not he was even going to be a Giant next year because this was the last year of his contract. Near the end of Spring Training though, the Giants and Cain were able to work out a deal that is the richest contract in the history of Major League Baseball for a right hander. Last night the 5 year $112.5 million contract was justified in just 9 innings.

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The game was not without drama, even though Cain struck out 14 Astros hitters. In the 7th inning a ball was driven deep into “Triples Ally” and Gregor Blanco made a diving catch to save the game. “That was the defining play,” Cain said. “He makes that play in the beginning of the seventh inning, and then I had to get two more outs. The place is going crazy and I was literally having to re-check myself to be able to see the signs that Buster was putting down because it was so much adrenaline, so much stuff going on.”

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This perfect game was the first in Giants history, but it was also the 22nd in Major League Baseball history, with the last one coming on April 1st of 2012. Cain wasn’t the only one with nerves though. Catcher Buster Posey was feeling it too. “I was as nervous as I’ve ever been on a baseball field, not gonna lie,” Posey said. “It’s a different type of nervousness than in the World Series or playoffs because you want so much to put the right pitch down. But ultimately this is a guy making pitches and what I just tried to do is be confident in everything I called and not deviate from what I had done the entire game.”

As you can see from Cain’s line, he pitched so good, some are calling it one of the greatest games ever pitched. His overall game score of 101 is the second highest game score in the history of baseball, behind only Kerry Wood’s 20 strikeout gem.