For Drew Rasmussen, Chasing Perfect Game 'Was Just Really Cool'
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Baseball is a perfectly imperfect game, played for a dozen decades with edicts and traditions and even a long list of unwritten rules.
A couple of things apply when there's a perfect game or no-hitter on the line. For a pitcher, battling nerves is a huge thing, so that one big unwritten rule is that you leave the pitcher alone in the dugout, allowing him to keep his thoughts to himself.
Drew Rasmussen would have none of that on Sunday as he was posting one perfect inning after another against the Baltimore Orioles. He kept his wits about him the entire day, even as he skipped out to the mound in the ninth inning, having retired 24 batters in a row.
He wasn't about to sit alone in the dugout, either. He chatted it up with several of his fellow pitchers, and even spent one half-inning laughing and carrying on with fellow starter Shane McClanahan.
Those unwritten rules? Shove 'em. That's just not how this team rolls, even in a once-in-a-lifetime game.
“I have to talk to people in the dugout,’’ Rasmussen said. “I hate sitting there in silence. It’s the worst. I just sit there and keep joking around and keep it light and fun. That’s what this team does. When you have the bond that we do, it makes being in the dugout between innings more enjoyable.
“You understand what has happened the first two times through the order, then you go out there for the seventh and have a quality inning. You go out there for the eighth, a quality inning. So you really start to understand what’s happening. It was just a really cool outing and a really cool environment to be in.’’
Rasmussen plowed through the first eight innings on just 79 pitches. The perfect game bid ended on the 80th pitch though, when Orioles shortstop Jorge Mateo drilled a hanging cutter down the third base line for a double. He would move up to third on a groundout and score on a wild pitch, but that was all the Orioles got.
Rasmussen was taken out then, and received a standing ovation from the Tropicana Field crowd of 18,093. Jason Adam got the last two outs, and the Rays won 4-1. Randy Arozarena was the offensive hero with a three-run homer in the third inning.
“I mean, I'll take it,” Rasmussen said. “I wouldn't say it was disappointing, man. I came that close, and very few can say they've done that, too.”
Rays manager Kevin Cash marveled at the ease of which Rasmussen plowed through the Baltimore batting order inning after inning. Rasmussen never struggled, with only two batters got to a three-ball count.
“I definitely thought he had a shot (at the perfect game,” Cash said. “The pitch count alone we felt comfortable with, and just the way the stuff was coming out, I mean, that's really, really tough to do. He probably had the best breaking balls I’ve seen this year.
“I noticed him talking to (Shane) McClanahan after the seventh inning. Normally when you see pitchers get that deep (into a potential perfect game or no-hitter), they’re kind of on their own little island by themselves. But that’s not our group. They have conversations, whoever’s pitching. They’re always talking.’’
It was the longest a Rays starter had ever gone with a perfect game, getting those first 24 outs. Chris Archer held the previous mark when he went 6 1/3 innings on July 29, 2015 against the Detroit Tigers.
During an ''opener'' game against the Orioles on July 14, 2019, Ryne Stanek pitched two perfect innings and then Ryan Yarbrough threw six more perfect frames. That combined perfect game also was broken up with a first-pitch hit in the ninth inning.
By design to keep his overall innings down, Rasmussen — a converted relief pitcher — threw just three innings in his last start last Sunday at Detroit. He was perfect that day, too, facing the minimum through three innings.
"Put together a special outing."@RaysBaseball manager Kevin Cash raves about the near-perfect start from Drew Rasmussen and the big win over the Orioles on Sunday afternoon. #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/lhedUVKa06
— Bally Sports Sun: Rays (@BallyRays) August 14, 2022
Over his last two starts, has yielded only three base-runners in 11 1/3 IP and opponents are hitting 1-for-36 against him. The baserunners have reached on an error, Mateo's double and the strikeout/wild pitch to Brett Phillips in the ninth inning Sunday.
The Mateo double ended an 0-for-34 stretch against him, tying Steve Geltz (June 6-24, 2015) for the longest streak of hitless at-bats against a Rays pitcher. Rasmussen broke the record for the longest hitless streak against a Rays starter, passing an 0-for-31 stretch against Jake Odorizzi from May 24-29, 2016.
Perfection is hard to come by. Rasmussen was attempting to pitch the 24th perfect game in major league history, and 23rd in the regular season. (Don Larsen of the 1956 New York Yankees has thrown the only postseason perfect game.)
The last one came almost 10 years ago to the day, when Seattle's Félix Hernández pitched a perfect game AGAINST the Rays on Aug 15, 2012.
Since the Hernandez perfect game, eight other pitchers have been perfect through eight but weren't able to close it out. Carlos Rodon of the Chicago White Sox went 8 1/3 innings last April against Cleveland. The others to barely miss out on history were Seattle's Mike Leake 2019, Kansas City's Jorge López in 2018, Los Angeles Dodgers lefty Rich Hill in 2017, Washington's Max Scherzer in 2015, San Franciscio's Yusmeiro Petit in 2013 and Texas' Yu Darvish in 2013
Rasmussen was able to keep his composure through this because he's actually pitched a perfect game before. In college at Oregon State, he threw a perfect game against Washington State on March 21, 2015. It's the only perfecto in school history.
Drew Rasmussen was flirting with a perfect game today, but he wasn't going to let his teammates leave him alone in the dugout! #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/Z1tsPFia5f
— Bally Sports Sun: Rays (@BallyRays) August 14, 2022
Rasmussen is now 7-4 on the season and his ERA is down to 2.80. He's made 20, and the Rays are 14-6 in those games. He missed three weeks in late June with a hamstring issue, and prior to that he gave up 12 runs in 12 1/3 innings over three starts when he wasn't quite 100 percent.
In his other 17 starts this season, he's now thrown 87 1/3 innings and given up only 19 runs, a stunning 1.96 ERA.
It was a big win, too, because its helped clinch the season series against Baltimore, with the Rays winning 10-9. The Orioles are now 1 1/2 games behind the Rays in the wild-card chase, and head-to-head record is the first tie-breaker this year with no extra game to determine a playoff spot — or division champion — in the new six-team format.
"The guys were incredible (in the dugout),'' Rasmussen said. ''They were excited for me. It would have really cool to do it, but that just how it goes. That pitch (to Mateo) sort of stayed over the plate.''
The Rays left for New York after the game, and will play three games against the Yankees starting on Monday night. Tampa Bay is currently in third place in the American League East, 11 games behind the Yankees.
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Tom Brew is the publisher of Inside The Rays, and has been with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation network for three years. He is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his four-decade career at the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has written four books.