I've been a Giants fan as long as I can remember. I have many great memories, despite the absence of World Series trophies earned in San Francisco. There have been historic milestones, dramatic finishes, a couple of trips to the Fall Clasic, and of course Dave Dravecky's courageous return to baseball after having a tumor removed from his pitching arm.
While those varied memories all have their own special place in my heart, tonight's near-perfect game by Jonathan Sanchez was the most amazing, not to mention unlikely, performance I've ever seen from someone in a Giants uniform.
What made this performance so special? Come over the fold to find out.
No Giants pitcher has thrown a no-hitter in my lifetime. The last guy to do it was by John "The Count" Montefusco in 1976. The last time a left handed Giants pitcher threw a no-hitter was in 1959. 50 years ago.
But that's not what makes this performance so amazing.
What makes this performance absolutely amazing was that Sanchez didn't just throw a no-hitter, he had as perfect a game as a pitcher could have. He gave up no hits and no walks over 9 innings. In the 130 year history of Major League Baseball, where thousands of games are played each season, just 17 pitchers have pitched a perfect game. Jonathan Sanchez was just as untouchable tonight as any of those 17.
It's the back story, however, that makes this so incredible.
Prior to this game, Sanchez had been the epitome of unfulfilled promise. He could throw hard, but it seemed as though he was never going to put everything together to fulfill the potential his raw talent exhibited. Though he'd started over 50 games in his career, he had never pitched a shutout, or even completed a game for that matter. This season, he had lost 8 games while winning just 2, and was giving up nearly 5 and a half runs for every nine innings pitched. He had been demoted to the bullpen, and many fans, including myself I'll admit, were hoping he'd be traded to bring in someone who could improve our offense. As it was, the kid they had brought up to replace him in the rotation, Ryan "Big" Sadowski, has been doing a fine job. Jonathan Sanchez had pretty much lost his starting job for the foreseeable future of his career as a Giant.
And then, the baseball Gods intervened. In a strange incident, Randy Johnson tweaked his shoulder oddly while batting last Sunday. The trainers overlooked it and sent him back out to pitch the next inning. By the time the Giants pulled him from the game he had sustained a fairly serious injury and would have to miss a start.
Enter Sanchez.
Sanchez discovered early in the week that he would be pitching in tonight's game. Plans were made to have his father, Sigfredo, fly to San Francisco from Puerto Rico to see his son pitch in a Major League game for the first time. Perhaps it was the sense that he may not have another opportunity to start a game for a while. The elder Sanchez insisted it was the prompting of God. Whatever the case may be, the younger Sanchez was an inspired man tonight. He kept hitters off balance early in the game, inducing a good mix of routine flys and ground balls to zip through the first four innings. Then, he seemed to feel the wind at his back. He struck out 2 in the 5th, followed by 2 in the 6th, building to a crescendo in the 7th inning when he struck out the side. At this point the stadium was buzzing.
The tension during the eight inning was thick. It was still a pristine perfect game. After All-Star Adrian Gonzalez hit a deep fly ball to the warning track, everyone let out a huge sigh of relief. This was followed by the most disappointing moment of the game, when Juan Uribe bobbled a routine ground ball, allowing a runner to reach base, and thus ending the attempt at a perfect game. Sanchez then threw a wild pitch, which allowed the runner to advance to second. Like the night before, when Tim Lincecum took a no-hitter into the 7th inning, and as often happens, it seemed as though this base runner was going to introduce enough distraction to derail this effort. But not tonight. Sanchez slowed down, dug deep, and struck out Eliezer Alfonzo to put an end to the threat.
The crowd was on it's feet as soon as Sanchez took the mound in the ninth. Luis Rodriguez leads off the inning with a ground ball deep in the shortstop's pocket. Edgar Renteria makes a great play to backhand the ball and throw off his back foot to avoid giving up the infield hit. One down. Next up, Edgar Gonzalez hits a deep, deep fly ball to dead center field. The crowd gasped for breath in horror. Aaron Rowand makes a kamikaze run straight into the wall and bounces off with the ball in his glove. Sigfredo Sanchez ragins a regular heartbeat. Two down. Jonathan starts off Everth Cabrera by giving him 2 balls and the advantage in the at-bat. Sanchez walks off the mound and takes a deep breath. He then turns around and delivers a waist high fastball on the outside corner of the plate for strike one. He then puts the same pitch a little farther off the plate. Cabrera chases it and fouls it off for strike two. Finally, he delivers the beautiful breaking ball that had been freezing Padres all night. Cabrera stares as the ball floats over the plate, and the ump does his best Leslie Nielsen impression with a dramatic strike three call to end the game. The crowd erupts. The team swarms Sanchez at the mound.
As the players on the mound begin to disperse, Randy Johnson, whose injury set off the chain of events that led to this moment, and who just happens to be the last person to have pitched a perfect game, came up and hugged Sanchez.
Sanchez then made his way around the dugout, stopping in front of his father, who had tears in his eyes. The two men shared a long, emotional embrace. When they finally released, sideline reporter Amy Gutierrez came up to interview them. At the end of the interview, Sigfredo Sanchez explained the night this way, "Dios es Grande."
God is big.
MLB.com is providing a condensed webcast of the no-hitter here.