The rise and fall of Phillip Humber

There have been 23 official perfect games in major league history.

Few appear to have been as unlikely as the one thrown earlier this season by former Twin Phillip Humber. When he threw his gem, he appeared to have finally emerged as a legitimate major league starter.

Phil Humber after his perfect game
on April 21 in Seattle. At the time,
his ERA was 0.63; today, it's 6.50.

Not so. After his embarrassing outing Tuesday against the Twins -- 10 batters faced, one retired, eight runs allowed, a batting average allowed of 1.000 (the one out was a sacrifice fly and thus not an official at-bat) -- Humber has an ERA of 6.50. Six and a half runs per nine innings -- in a season in which he threw a perfect game.

Which raises the question: Is he the worst pitcher ever to have a perfect game?

Granting that all perfect games are flukes, there is a real connection between them and the quality of the pitcher.

The vast bulk of perfectos come from quality pitchers. Six of the 23 were authored by Hall of Famers (Monte Ward, Cy Young, Addie Joss, Sandy Koufax, Jim Bunning, Catfish Hunter), and Randy Johnson and Roy Halladay (and maybe Felix Hernandez) will someday join the list. Then there are such perfect-game pitchers as David Wells, Dennis Martinez and David Cone -- distinguished pitchers but unlikely to be chosen for Cooperstown.

Only a handful of true mediocrities throw perfect games. Lee Richmond, who threw the first perfecto back in 1880, was 75-100, 3.06; he had two 30-plus loss seasons. Charlie Robertson (1922) was 49-80, 4.44 in an eight-year major league career. Dallas Braden has started three games since 2010 because of injuries; he's 26-36, 4.16  for his career. Don Larsen was 81-91, 3.78.

And Humber is 16-15, 4.88.

Humber and Braden are both active (at least theoretically in Braden's case; he had rotator cuff surgery in late August, and his career appears to be in genuine jeopardy), so they could still rise or fall. But right now I'd have to say Humber is the worst perfect game author in history.

And really, there's no shame in that. Somebody has to be the worst of the 23. But an ERA of 6.50 -- yeah, that's embarrassing.

King Felix and the Melk Man: Perfect and Imperfect

A couple of significant news items in baseball Wednesday:

Felix Hernandez was perfect on Wednesday against the
Tampa Bay Rays.

Perfect: Seattle ace (and former Cy Young Award winner) Felix Hernandez threw a perfect game against Tampa Bay.

That makes three perfectos already this season (the other two belonging to Phil Humber and Matt Cain).

I offered some theories earlier this season on why we are seeing so many perfect games. The main one stands up for this game. Tampa Bay is a good team, but the lineup is built more for walks and power than for average. Such teams are susceptible to outstanding pitching performances, and King Felix provided that on Wednesday.

Humber and Cain, incidentally, have both struggled since their gems. Humber's ERA for the season is a bloated 5.87, 6.84 since the perfect game. Cain, a markedly superior pitcher to Humber, has had a 4.18 ERA in 10 starts since his perfect game, raising his ERA from 2.18 after the gem to 2.99 today.

Melky Cabrera and his All-Star MVP trophy.

Badly flawed: Melky Cabrera, the surprise MVP of the 2012 All-Star Game, was hit with a 50-game suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs.

The Giants outfielder, hitting.346/.390/.516, essentially admitted that he did it and is not appealing the test result.

Cabrera was a so-so player for several years with the Yankees and Braves, but had a breakout season in 2011 with Kansas City. The Royals traded him to San Francisco for Jonathan Sanchez — a pitcher who flopped with K.C. — and Cabrera was having an even bigger season for the Giants.

Until now. Cabrera's suspension will last the rest of the regular season, and it's bound to have a major impact on San Francisco down the stretch. The Giants are neck-and-neck with the Dodgers in the NL West, but their most productive hitter this season is now finished.

Matt Cain's perfect game

Matt Cain: A very good pitcher
had a very great game.

While I was sleeping (yes, despite all the middle-of-the-night time stamps on my posts, it does happen), Matt Cain of the San Francisco Giants threw a perfect game.

It was one of the more dominant outings in baseball history, what with 14 strikeouts.

That makes five perfect games since July 2009 -- less than 36 months -- and that's not counting the Amando Galarraga "imperfect" game marred by the Jim Joyce umpiring error.

What I'm puzzling over -- and this will probably be my topic for the Monday print column -- is why do we suddenly have so many perfectos? Has something basic switched in the game, or is this just random happenstance?

A perfectly memorable day for Halladay

Roy Halladay (above) just wrapped up a perfect game against the Florida Marlins.

Not that you can ever expect a perfect game, or even a no-hitter, but one has to figure this was a lot more likely than Dallas Braden's perfecto. Halladay is an established star pitcher, one of the very best in the game. Braden, not so much.

 Box score here. Game story here.

A perfect game

Dallas Braden had been best known as a promising left-handed pitcher in the Oakland system.

He got a bit more attention earlier this year when he publicly called out Alex Rodriguez for running across the pitchers mound. A-Rod's sneering response: "How many games has he won?"

Last week, in a radio interview, Braden renewed his jabs at the Yankee star. A-Rod replied: "I don't want to extend his 15 minutes of fame."

On Sunday, Braden threw a perfect game at the Tampa Bay Rays. His fame is going to last a bit longer than 15 minutes. And for those foolish enough to judge someone's credibility by his stats, he rose a bit.

Box score here. Game story here.

More on perfect games

In conjunction with the Monday print column, more on perfectos:

* Mark Buehrle's game Thursday was the 18th official perfect game. That official list leaves out two games that went extra innings, and the pitcher allowed a baserunner after the ninth inning.

The first, and most famous, was that of Harvey Haddix on May 26, 1959. The Kitten — so dubbed for his resemblance to Harry "the Cat" Brecheen — threw 12 shutout innings. In the 13th, his third baseman, Don Hoak, committed an error. He walked Henry Aaron intentionally. The Joe Adcock hit a pitch over the fence — but passed Aaron between second and third. The result was a one-run double, not a three-run homer — but still a win for Milwaukee.

The second was that of Pedro Martinez on June 3, 1995. He gave up a leadoff double in the 10th inning and was immediately relieved by Mel Rojas, who wrapped up the Montreal win.

At least Pedro got the W. All Haddix got out of it was a loss.

* The Twins have been on the losing end of two perfect games — Catfish Hunter on May 8, 1968, and David Wells on May 17, 1998. There's no question that Hunter faced the more difficult lineup — Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew and Tony Oliva, plus Cesar Tovar and Bob Allison. And, yeah, Bruce Look and Jackie Hernandez. (The idea that Hernandez was hitting seventh ...)

The 1998 lineup had Paul Molitor, but by then Molly was a shell of what he had been. And the rest of the lineup ... well, there were a lot of reasons the Twins of the late '90s were so bad, and many of those reasons were playing that day.

* The worst pitcher to throw a perfect game may have faced the toughest lineup. Charlie Robertson on April 30, 1922 did it to the Detroit Tigers. The Tiger outfield featured Ty Cobb (batting average that season of .401), Harry Heilmann (.356) and Bobby Veach (.327). As a team that year, the Tigers averaged .306.

Robertson was making only his second major league start. It did not presage a glorious career: He finished his career 49-80 with an ERA of 4.44 and never had a winning season.

* Addie Joss' perfecto on Oct. 2, 1908 has frequently been called the greatest pitchers duel ever. He and fellow Hall-of-Famer Ed Walsh matched up in this heated pennant race game. Joss threw a perfect game; Walsh struck out 15 and allowed a single unearned run. Joss, possessor of the game's best fast ball at the time, would be dead in three years.