Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga was robbed of a perfect game, what would have been an unprecedented third of the Major League Baseball season, by umpire Jim Joyce’s botched call Wednesday.
Joyce errantly ruled that Galarraga had not grabbed the ball and tagged first base with his right foot for a game-ending out before Cleveland hitter Jason Donald reached the bag in what eventually was a 3-0 Detroit triumph.
Television video replay clearly showed the 28-year-old Venezuelan made the play for the final out, what should have been the 27th in a row without allowing a base runner, to complete his perfect game.
Instead, Joyce bungled the call and took away his moment of glory.
“I feel sad,” Galarraga said. “I just watched the replay 20 times and there’s no way you can call him safe … that guy took a perfect game away from me. He needs to do a better job in that situation. It wasn’t even close.”
Joyce, who went to the locker room and apologized to Galarraga and the Tigers after the game, admitted that he made the wrong call, but the judgment decision was not subject to video review or appeal under major league rules.
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“I just cost that kid a perfect game,” Joyce said. “I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay.”
Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay tossed only the 20th perfect game in major league history last Saturday in a 1-0 victory at Florida, that just 20 days after Oakland’s Dallas Braden had a perfect 4-0 win over Tampa Bay.
Never in modern baseball history had two perfect games been pitched in the same season much less the same month and it would have been three had Joyce, a 54-year-old umpire with 22 years in the major leagues, made the proper call.
“It was the biggest call of my career and I kicked the (stuffings) out of it,” said a remorseful Joyce, who received sympathy from classy Galarraga.
“He feels really bad. I understand,” Galarraga said. “You don’t see an umpire after the game come out and say, ‘Hey, let me tell you I’m sorry.’
“He said, ‘You don’t know how bad I feel. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say.’ I gave him a couple hugs and said, ‘Nobody’s perfect.'”
The controversy is likely to touch off calls for greater use of video replay in major league games.
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