Cleveland Indians pitcher Triston McKenzie retired the first 23 Detroit Tigers batters on Sunday. McKenzie was only four outs from pitching the 24th perfect game in MLB history. If McKenzie earned the perfect game, it would have been the first since Mariners’ Félix Hernández perfect game exactly nine years ago, on Aug. 15, 2012.
McKenzie lost his bid with two outs in the eighth inning when Harold Castro lined a 2-1 fastball to right field. Regardless, McKenzie’s one-hit shutdown led to an impressive 11-0 win for the Indians.
“I started thinking about it in the third inning, I knew I was perfect through the first time through the order, but I didn’t change my routine,” McKenzie said. “If I had to sum today up in one word, it would be ‘comfortable.’ I got into my groove right away and just kept going.”
“It was a pretty good fastball, but I didn’t get it past him,” McKenzie said of Castro’s hit. “So it wasn’t good enough.”
McKenzie’s near-historic effort would’ve also counted as the record-setting ninth no-hitter of the 2021 season. Tyler Gilbert‘s no-hitter on Saturday was the eighth no-hitters of the season, tying with the 1884 season.
McKenzie’s efforts also denied Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera potentially hitting his 500th career home run in the game. McKenzie struck out Cabrera, who has 499th career home runs and was looking to become the 28th player in league history to hit 500 home runs.
The 24-year-old McKenzie entered Sunday’s start against Detroit with a 5.66 ERA across 16 starts and one relief appearance this season. After his one-hit performance, his ERA has been reduced to 5.12.
