Matt Cain's Perfect Game

San Francisco Giants', RHP and starter, Matt Cain threw the first perfect game in franchise history on Wednesday Night against the Houston Astros. The spectacle was one of the most dominant perfect game performances in the history of baseball, as if the term "perfect game" didn't already imply dominance. Cain was absolutely dialed in, tying Sandy Koufax's record for the most strikeouts in a perfect game, striking out 14 batters.

This 22nd perfect game in the history of baseball will be remembered as one of the most masterful regular season pitching performances, if not ever. Cain himself was responsible for over half of the total 27 outs in striking out 14. And 86 of his 125 pitches, the most ever thrown in a perfect game, were strikes. Matt Cain and catcher Buster Posey were perfectly in sync that night. Cain didn't shake off Posey once, consistently dealing every pitch Posey called from behind the plate.

Posey also made one of the more important and difficult outs of the game. With two out in the sixth inning, a pitch bounced off his chest protector and dropped in front of the plate, but Posey quickly pounced on it and managed to throw out the runner to end the inning.

The spectacular pitcher-catcher duo didn't account for all of the pivotal outs, however. The biggest threat to Cain's perfect game came in the 7th inning when Gregor Blanco robbed Jordan Schafer of what appeared to be a hit into the gap.
Watch Gregor Blanco's diving catch that preserved Cain's perfect game: 


During the post-game on-field interview with the crew of "MLB Tonight" on MLB Network, the realization of Cain's accomplishment was still sinking in for him.
According to the Huffington Post, this is what he said:

"Honestly, I have no idea what it means. This is unspeakable right now. This is unbelievable," Cain marveled. "This is something that, obviously, [is] part of history, something that I'm going to remember forever. This is truly amazing right now."

It was truly amazing, incredible, breath-taking, and every emotion to that effect, to have witnessed the performance Cain delivered. And even more amazing to hear the pitcher credit and praise every player that took the field with him that night as significant in accomplishing the feat. 

Watching the game really got me thinking about how special perfect games really are. Everything, literally everything has to line up perfectly. The pitcher has to be on his A-game, obviously. The defense has to be better than errorless, they have to be impeccable and incredible. The opposing offense has  to be having an off day, to some extent. And the manager really has to be careful with his decisions. 

And though Cain's perfect outing is the second this season, White Sox pitcher Philip Humber threw a perfecto of his own in April, Matt Cain's historic outing is one of the most remarkable perfect games ever thrown.