Catching a Perfect Game is Hard. Trying to Hit While Catching One is Even Harder.
Kyle Higashioka stepped into the batters box in the top of the ninth on Wednesday, June 28 for the most distracted plate appearance of his life. The Yankees were ahead 11-0 and had scored three runs in the inning. All he wanted to do was get back behind the plate, where he had already caught eight perfect innings from Domingo Germán.
The trouble was that the Yankees couldn’t stop scoring. Germán was visibly uncomfortable in the dugout, anxious to get back out to the mound to finish his historic performance. His teammates surely would’ve obliged, but muscle memory kicked in when A’s reliever Sam Long kept hanging breaking pitches. There was even a throwing error by third baseman Jonah Bride extending the inning. Higashioka was the seventh batter, and he mercifully made the final out, releasing his pitcher from purgatory.
Catching a perfect game is almost as difficult as throwing one and arguably even more stressful. Only 21 players have done it in AL/NL history since 1901, with one player catching two different perfectos. They all made it to the majors in part because they could hit at least a little bit, but their offense was a secondary focus on those days, becoming less of a priority as tension crescendo-ed in later innings.
Unsurprisingly, the catchers catching perfectos didn’t hit well. On the days of the 22 modern perfect games, catchers went 18 for 75 with a .240/.278/.360 slash line. This is a small sample size plucked from individual games dating back to Cy Young‘s perfecto on May 5, 1904. (His catcher, Lou Criger, went 1-3 with a double and a strikeout.) It’s also not that far off from a typical backup catcher’s offensive production.
However, these catchers averaged a 98 OPS+ in the season in which they caught perfect games and 94 OPS+ over their careers. They were, in general, roughly league-average hitters, which makes them above average for catchers—an overall weaker-hitting position group. They include three Hall of Famers (Yogi Berra, Iván Rodríguez, and Ray Schalk) and one future Hall of Famer (Buster Posey).
There were a few interesting offensive performances. Only one of them hit a home run—Pudge Rodríguez during Kenny Rogers‘ perfect game on July 28, 1994. Jay Clarke went 0-3 with three strikeouts when he caught Addie Joss on October 2, 1908. Joss only struck out three batters that day, which is as many as his catcher had at the plate.
Higashioka’s fly out to end the top of the ninth was his fifth plate appearance. He went 1-5 on the day with a double in the fifth. The only other perfect-game catcher with five plate appearances was Posey, who went 2-5 with a double while catching Matt Cain on June 13, 2012.
Remember the guy who caught two perfect games? That was Ron Hassey. His first was Len Barker‘s on May 15, 1981. A little over ten years later on July 28, 1991, he was behind the plate for Dennis Martinez‘s. Like most catchers, he was hardly fleet of foot, but he was the only catcher to attempt a stolen base while catching a perfecto. He stole 14 bases in 24 attempts over his 14-year career, and 1991 was his final season. What a perfect time to steal!
The 1991 game actually began as a double-perfecto. Neither Martinez nor opposing pitcher Mike Morgan allowed a baserunner through five innings. Morgan lost his no-hitter in the sixth, but the game remained a shutout. In the top of the seventh, the Expos broke through for a run on Larry Walker‘s two-out RBI triple. Hassey came up next and reached on an error with Walker scoring. With his pitcher waiting in the dugout chasing perfection and a few runs in the bank, the 38-year-old veteran backstop, who had already caught a prior perfecto, took off for second base on the second pitch of the next at bat. He was nabbed for the third out. It was the final stolen base attempt of his career.
A good catcher has to do whatever the pitcher needs. When he’s at the plate or on the bases, that usually means helping to score as many runs as possible, just like the rest of the lineup. During a perfect game, there are exceptions. No one would ever accuse Hassey of getting caught stealing on purpose or Higashioka of flying out quickly to end the top of the ninth on Wednesday, but no one would blame them either.
-Daniel R. Epstein
