The Imperfect Game

Baseball has its no-hitter, where a team (as the name clearly states) gets no hits. There’s also the perfect game, in which no hits are recorded, no batters reach base, 27 hitters go to the plate and 27 are retired.

Then there’s the weird amalgam assembled on Tuesday night in New York. San Francisco Giants pitcher Chris Heston recorded a no-hitter in a 5-0 win over the Mets that could fit the new category of the imperfect game.

Heston, a 27-year-old rookie, obviously allowed no hits. He did not walk any batters. But he hit three batters with pitches, including the leadoff batter in the ninth inning.

Strange enough. But wait, there’s more. After hitting Anthony Recker to start the bottom of the ninth, Heston struck out the next three batters, all of them looking at called third strikes. That gave Heston 11 strikeouts on the night. He became the first pitcher since Sandy Koufax in 1965 to strike out the side to end a no-hitter and the first rookie to throw a no-hitter since Clay Buccholz in 2007.

The pitching-heavy Giants have recorded 17 no-hitters in franchise history and this is their fourth in four seasons. Matt Cain pitched a perfect game in 2012 and Tim Lincecum tossed no-hitters in 2013 and 2014.

Heston’s wasn’t a perfect game. Not with three hit batsmen. Let’s call it an imperfect game, but certainly one to remember.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .