The Kansas City Royals were six outs away from the first combined perfect game in major-league history Monday afternoon against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Josh Staumont and Mike Mayers combined to retire the first 21 Cardinals before Nolan Arenado broke up the perfect game bid with a solid single to left field to open the eighth inning. The Royals won the game 7-0 (box score).
Here is Arenado's history-ruining single:
Staumont started Monday's game as an opener and struck out two in a 1-2-3 first inning. Mayers, who was originally drafted by the Cardinals and broke into the big leagues with St. Louis, followed Staumont and retired the first 18 batters he faced as the bulk reliever. He surrendered the single to Arenado on his 76th and final pitch, which is his season high at either Triple-A or MLB.
Prior to Arenado's single, the Cardinals put only two balls in play with better than a 50/50 chance to go for a hit based on the exit velocity and launch angle, according to Statcast. Six of the first 21 Cardinals to bat saw a three-ball count, including Lars Nootbaar, who began the game with a 3-0 count. Staumont rebounded to get him to fly out on a 3-1 count.
The Tampa Bay Rays were three outs away from baseball's first combined perfect game on July 14, 2019. Ryne Stanek and Ryan Yarbrough combined to throw eight perfect innings against the Baltimore Orioles before Hanser Alberto broke it up with a single to begin the ninth inning. Yarbrough, coincidentally enough, is now with the Royals.
It has been 3,939 days since Félix Hernández's perfect game, MLB's last. This is baseball's longest perfect game drought since the 4,755 days between Catfish Hunter's (May 8, 1968) and Len Barker's (May 15, 1981) perfect games. There have been 19 combined no-hitters in history, but still no combined perfect game.
The Cardinals and Royals are two of the seven franchises to never be involved in a perfect game, either as the pitching team or hitting team. In other words, Monday would have been the first perfect game thrown by the Royals and the first perfect game thrown against the Cardinals.
Staumont, Mayers, Taylor Clarke and Amir Garrett combined to hold St. Louis to two hits in the shutout win. They struck out seven and did not walk a batter. The victory improves the last-place Royals to 17-38. The Cardinals, fourth in the NL Central, fell to 24-32.
Baseball's last perfect game remains King Félix against the Rays on Aug. 15, 2012. It has been 3,939 days since MLB's last perfect game. That's the longest drought since the 4,755 days between Catfish Hunter's (May 8, 1968) and Len Barker's (May 15, 1981) perfect games.
And that's that. Nolan Arenado breaks up the combined perfect game bid with a solid single to left field. We're still waiting for the first combined perfect game in history.
He's thrown 70 pitches in six innings as the bulk reliever. His season-high is the 64 pitches he threw in Triple-A on May 5.
