Game 152

October 2, 1908 – Addie Joss Throws a Perfect Game in a Pennant Race

The Naps, White Sox, and Tigers were in a three-way pennant race going into the last week of the season. Cleveland was one game behind Detroit, and Chicago was half a game behind Cleveland. 

On Friday October 2, the White Sox traveled to Cleveland to kick off a weekend series at League Park. “Big Ed” Walsh took the mound for Chicago with an incredible 39 and 14 record for the season so far. However, Walsh had yet to win at League Park that season. Two of his three loses in Cleveland had come against Addie Joss, the “Human Hairpin” with the corkscrew delivery. 

Joss took the mound with a 23-11 record and an incredible strikeout to walk ratio of 4.20. During the team warmups, Joss spotted Walsh on the White Sox bench. A local reporter snapped a photo of the two ace pitchers having a quiet conversation before one of the biggest matchups of the season. 

Both pitchers came out dealing. Joss sat down the first nine White Sox he faced. 

In the bottom of the third, Naps centerfielder Joe Birmingham led off with a single into right. Birmingham took a wide lead off first and Walsh made his pickoff move. Birmingham broke for second. The throw to second struck Birmingham in the back and bounced into center field. He reached third without a slide. 

After Freddy Parent grounded out to short and Joss struck out attempting to bunt, leadoff hitter Wilbur Good came to the plate. Walsh got Good to strike out swinging, but the third strike sailed out of catcher Osee Schrecongost’s reach. Birmingham came home on the wild pitch and gave the Naps a 1-0 lead.  

In the middle innings, both pitchers mowed through the opposing lineup. Ed Walsh was striking out two or more Naps an inning, but Joss was also getting the White Sox out with ruthless efficiency. 

Around the bottom of the seventh, the crowd began to sense that history was on the line. The horns, cowbells, and other noisemakers that were customary at League Park fell silent as the tension was building.

Joss faced three pinch hitters in the bottom of the ninth. Doc White grounded out to second. Lee Tannehill whiffed for Joss’ third strikeout of the day. John Anderson came in to pinch hit for Ed Walsh with two outs. He smacked a line drive down the left field line that fell just foul. It was the nearest that Chicago came to a hit all day. Following the foul, Anderson grounded to the third baseman for the 27th out. 

Joss had pitched just the second Perfect Game in baseball history, and he had done it using only 74 pitches. Two years later, Joss would become the first player to no-hit a team twice when he blanked the Sox in Game 5 of 1910. It would be another 73 years before the next Perfect Game in Cleveland, when Len Barker tossed his in Game 24 of 1971.

Among pitchers with over 1,000 innings in the books, Addie Joss and Ed Walsh have the lowest ERAs in baseball history. Walsh’s 1.82 over fourteen seasons edges out Joss’ 1.89 over nine years. Joss remains the all-time leader in WHIP with a mark of 0.968.

Joss is the only player ever to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame with less than 10 years of play in MLB. Joss died of tuberculosis just before the 1911 season began. In 1978 the 10-year tenure rule was waived to include Cleveland’s original pitching ace in Cooperstown. 

Retrosheet Box Score

Honorable Mention – October 2, 2014 – Carlos Carrasco Tosses a 12K Maddux

While not quite a 74-pitch Perfect Game, Carlos Carrasco’s 12-stikeout, two-hitter against the Astros in late 2014 deserves an honorable mention. It earned Cookie his eighth win and was shortly followed by a hefty contract extension. 

Baseball Reference Box Score

Game 79

July 19, 1909 – Neal Ball Makes First-Ever Unassisted Triple Play

Cy Young was pitching for the Indians at League Park against Charlie Chech and the Red Sox in the first game of a Monday double-header.

The play-by-play of the game has been lost to history, but plenty of newspaper accounts preserve the box score and much has been written about the events that make this game notable, even 110 years later.

With the Naps up 1-0 in the top of the second, Boston’s Heinie Wagner singled to lead off. Jake Stahl moved Wagner over to second base with a bunt single. The hit-and-run was initiated with Amby McConnell at the plate. McConnel, lined the 3-2 pitch up the middle and Wagner was on his way to third on contact.

Neal Ball leaped to spear the line drive was it passed directly over second base. The ball stuck in his glove, and he landed on second, forcing out Wagner who was most of the way to third. Stahl attempted to reverse course, but Ball ran him down between first and second to record the third out.

Neal Ball’s Unassisted Triple Play Glove. Photo: National Baseball Hall of Fame

The play happened so quickly, that initially there was confusion. Cy Young asked Ball why he was headed to the dugout. “That’s three outs,” he deadpanned. Once fans at League Park realized what they had seen, they showered the field with their hats in celebration.

Ball himself later recounted the play, “I didn’t think there was a chance of getting it but I was on the move toward second and I gave it a try anyhow. It was dead over the bag by then so I jumped and the darned thing hit my glove and stuck. The rest was easy. Wagner was way around third base somewhere and when I came down on the bag he was out. I just stood there with my hands out and Stahl ran into them. He was halfway down when the ball was hit and couldn’t stop. That’s all there was to it. I can still remember how surprised I was when the ball hit in my glove.”

It so often seems that at player that makes a spectacular defensive play follows it up with offensive heroics. Whether this is due to adrenaline, a run of good luck, or additional swagger, it was certainly true for Neal Ball. With the crowd still cheering the triple play, he hit Chech’s first pitch of the third inning deep into League Park’s spacious outfield. He rounded the bases for an inside-the-park home run.

The Naps would go on to win the game 6-1.

There have been only 15 unassisted triple plays in Major League History. The Indians are the only team to have recorded three. In addition to Ball’s triple play, Bill Wambganss recorded the only unassisted triple play in World Series history in the 1920 Series against Brooklyn and Asdrubal Cabrera put out three Blue Jays in Game 38 of the 2008 season.

Neal Ball remains the only player in MLB history to record an unassisted triple play and a home run in the same inning–a feat that is unlikely to ever be matched.

Baseball Reference Box Score

Retrosheet Information

Honorable Mention: July 1, 2016 – 19 Inning Win Over Toronto on Canada Day