Oakland A's Dallas Braden Tosses Perfect Game Against Tampa Bay Rays

During yesterday’s game at Citi Field, the person sitting directly behind me caught a foul ball. About three innings later, the New York Mets’ Pepsi Fan Crew, or whatever they are called, were shooting shirts into the stands.

One of the crew members shot a shirt in my direction and my friend Allan grabbed the shirt from the guy who caught the foul ball behind me. After my friend Allan grabbed the shirt (which he later gave to a kid by the way), he asked me what the odds would be for a guy to catch a foul ball and one of those shirts would be in the same game?

I said they would have to be astronomical. I would guess they would be the same odds as one of the best offenses in baseball getting a perfect game getting thrown against them two years in a row.

For the second year in a row, the Tampa Bay Rays were victims of a perfect game. Last year, it was Chicago White Sox lefty Mark Buehrle who made history against the Rays, and this year it was another lefty who made history against the men from Tampa.

On Mother’s Day, Oakland A’s LHP Dallas Braden threw the 19th perfect game in Major League history as the A’s defeated the Rays 4-0. Let’s compare and look at the similarities from last year’s perfect game by Buehrle to this year’s perfect game by Braden.

- BJ Upton, Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria, Ben Zobrist, Carlos Pena, Jason Bartlett, and Gabe Kapler were in the lineup this year and last.

- Kapler made the first out of the ninth inning last year and made the last out of the ninth inning this year.

- Buehrle and Braden both struck out six Rays.

- Buehrle threw 116 pitches and Braden threw 109.

- Buehrle threw 76 strikes and Braden threw 77 strikes

- Buehrle’s ERA after perfect game: 3.28. Braden’s ERA after perfect game: 3.33.

- Last year’s game time: 2:03. This year’s game time: 2:07.

- The final out of both games was a groundball to shortstop.

As you can see, there were a lot of similarities between Buehrle’s perfect game last year and Braden’s this year. I would venture to say Braden was just a smidge more dominant than Buehrle was.

And what a week it was for A’s catcher Landon Powell. Earlier in the week he was voted to the NCAA College World Series Legends Team, and now he is the catcher for a perfect game. Not a bad week.

Perhaps the best moment of the game was when the cameras showed Braden sharing a moment with his grandmother. We saw a similar moment last year between Jonathan Sanchez and his father. You really can’t beat these moments.

Those moments were priceless.

Perhaps the only question that remains from this perfect game is whether or not Braden is going to get a congratulatory call from New York Yankees third baseman and best friend Alex Rodriguez?

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg