Felix Hernandez's Perfect Game: Ranking MLB's 6 No-Hitters of 2012

It’s a miracle.

The sporting rarity that has occurred only a handful of times in recorded history happened again today: A major leaguer has pitched a perfect game.

Today, it was Felix Hernandez, the 26 year-old ace for the struggling Seattle Mariners, who pitched nine perfect innings as his team blanked the Tampa Bay Rays, 1-0.

Amazingly enough, Hernandez’s effort marks the third time this year that a pitcher has hurled a perfect game. Only 20 had ever been pitched in over a century of Major League play before this season, and only once before had there ever before been a season that boasted two perfect games.

And now there are three.

Coupled with the three additional no-hitters that already took place this season, 2012 has been quite a red-letter year for pitchers. Thus, in celebration of Hernandez’s record-breaking third perfect game pitched in 2012—which also stands this season one shy of the modern record of seven no-hitters pitched in a single year—we will analyze these top six pitching performances of 2012.

6. June 8: The Mariners’ Team No-Hitter over the L.A. Dodgers

The Mariners both open and close this list, and they do it in style. On June 8, Kevin Milwood was no-hitting the Dodgers in interleague play through six innings when he felt a twinge and had to leave the game. He was a replaced by a succession of five relievers, each of whom kept Milwood’s symphony alive and tied the all-time record for most pitchers used in a combined no-hitter.

But for all his hard work in setting the stage, Kevin Milwood didn’t get any credit in the box score. Reliever Stephen Pryor was credited with his first career win for earning the last out in the seventh, and closer Tom Wilhelmsen walked away with the save.

5. June 1: Johan Santana vs. the St. Louis Cardinals

On June 1 of this year, Johan Santana did something no player had ever done before: He pitched a no-hitter for the New York Mets.

The Amazins’ have often toiled in the shadows of their crosstown rivals, and for 50 years, no Met—not Tom Seaver, not Dwight Gooden, not David Cone or anybody else—had ever pitched a no-hitter for the boys from Queens. Even Nolan Ryan, who started his career as a Met and still holds the all-time record for no hitters pitched with seven, didn’t rack up any until he left Shea. Thus, it was with great fanfare that Santana closed out the Mets 8-0 victory over the Cardinals this summer.

Yes, Santana may have benefited from a blown call in the sixth inning, in which a potential Carlos Beltran hit was ruled a foul. But all the same, Santana’s was a great pitching performance.

4. May 2: Jered Weaver over the Minnesota Twins

That 6’7” Jered Weaver is a great pitcher has long been understood. The three-time Angels All-Star currently leads the league in wins, won-loss percentage, ERA and WHIP, and he is likely to win the Cy Young Award this year.

But the exclamation point at the end of his stat line has to be Weaver’s May 2 performance against the Minnesota Twins: nine strikes, just one walk and a heck of an outing later, Weaver had pitched only the ninth no-hitter in Angels history, and there were no debates over any missed calls or who would be the ace of the 2012 Angels staff. 

3. June 13: Matt Cain over the Houston Astros

With two of the season’s no-hitters less than two weeks in his wake, Matt Cain stepped to the mound against the Astros on June 13 and promptly showed fans in the Bay Area that there’s more to the Giants’ staff than Tim Lincecum.

In just two and a half hours, before a crowd of nearly 43,000 people, Matt Cain steamrolled the Astros, striking out 14 en route to a perfect game at home.

It was the first perfect game the Giants had played in—on either side—since the club’s founding in 1883.

2. April 21: Philip Humber over the Seattle Mariners

A journeyman pitcher playing on his fourth team, Philip Humber took to the mound against the Seattle Mariners early this spring with one aim in mind: to pitch well enough to stay in the starting rotation.

As it happened, he did more than that: He blanked the Mariners in just 96 pitches, the fewest needed by any pitcher of a perfect game since David Cone’s effort in 1999.

Humber has been moved to the bullpen of late to cover long relief duties for the Chicago White Sox as they make their playoff push. But make no mistake about it, Humber’s April effort has been a rallying point for the White Sox all season long.

1. August 15: Felix Hernandez over the Tampa Bay Rays

Hernandez, the 2010 Cy Young Award winner, is one of the great pitchers of the modern era, so it’s no surprise that he should have pitched well in Florida today. But just how well was beyond anybody’s expectations.

Yes, Cain threw a few more strikeouts (14 to Hernandez’s 12. And Humber used a few less pitches (96 to Hernandez’s 104). But facing ace Jeremy Hellickson and with less offensive support than any of his contemporaries received, Felix Hernandez kept his nerves under control better than anyone else all year and led his struggling team to a 1-0 perfect game victory this afternoon.

As the Sporting News quipped about King Felix today, “the King is firmly in control of his kingdom in Seattle.”