Not so Perfect Games in the MLB

Perfect games in baseball are incredible achievements. This amazing accomplishment stays with you for the rest of the pitcher's career, something they are usually remembered for forever. While there have been numerous perfect games, there have been nine games that have fallen short. In the following nine games, the pitcher retired 26 straight batters, only to yield a hit to the last batter needed to complete a perfect game.

July 4^th, 1908 - Hooks Wiltse, the pitcher for the New York Giants, threw into the ninth inning and ended up hitting Philadelphia Phillies pitcher George McQuillian. He pitched into the tenth inning and completed the game, winning 1-0.

August 5^th, 1932 - Tommy Bridges, a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, gave up a single to Dave Harris, a pinch hitter for the Washington Senators.

June 27^th, 1958 - Billy Pierce led the Chicago White Sox into the ninth inning with a perfect game, until Ed Fitzgerald hit a double. This base hit landed inches away from the foul territory, nearly becoming just a long strike.

September 2, 1972 - Milt Pappas for the Chicago Cubs walked Larry Stahl, a pinch hitter for the San Diego Padres. The borderline 3-2 pitch was called a ball, a call that Pappas held against umpire Bruce Froemming. Froemming ended up umpiring eleven no-hitters for the rest of his 39 year career.

April 15, 1983 - Milt Wilcox blew a perfect game when the Detroit Tigers pitcher gave up a single to Jerry Hairston Sr., a batter for the Chicago White Sox.

May 2, 1988 - Ron Robinson, pitching for the Cincinnati Reds, gave up a single to the Montreal Expos' Wallace Johnson. The following batter, Tim Raines, hit a home run. At that point, Robinson was removed from the game and ended up getting the win, 3-2.

August 4, 1989 - Dave Stieb, a pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, allowed Roberto Kelly of the New York Yankees hit a double. Steve Sax, the next batter, hit an RBI single. Stieb ended up finishing the game and won 2-1.

April 20, 1990 - Brian Holman of the Seattle Mariners blew a perfect game when Oakland Athletics' Ken Phelps hit a home run off of him.

September 2, 2001 - Mike Mussina, a pitcher for the New York Yankees, gave up a single to Carl Everett, who was pinch hitting. To make matters worse, this game was played against their longstanding rival Boston Red Sox and the single was hit off a two-strike pitch.

These games, while they did not reach the milestone, go down in history as some of the biggest heartbreaks in sports.

Sources:

Perfect Games, Wikipedia.com