Happy Mother's Day! In honor of this special day, I'm going to talk about a very special perfect game that was pitched on, you guessed it, Mother's Day!
Dallas Braden's mom, Jodie Atwood, never watched her son play in the MLB, but after she passed away from cancer during Braden's senior year of high school, Braden lived with his maternal grandmother. His grandma was basically his mom, and a loving one at that, which is why Dallas's pitching performance on May 9, 2010, a start where his grandmother was in attendance, was so special. Mother's Day 2010 happened to fall on May 9, a day when Braden was scheduled to start for the Oakland Athletics at home against the Tampa Bay Rays. The opposing pitcher was All Star pitcher, James Shields, and the Rays lineup featured All Stars like Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria. Those Rays would go on to win the AL East division in 2010, but lose in the playoffs to the Texas Rangers. The A's would finish the 2010 season at an even 81-81.
Dallas pitched excellently the entire game. He struck out six Rays and after 109 pitches, threw a complete game shutout. Oh, did I forget to mention that he also didn't allow anyone to reach base? Yeah, that's right; Dallas Braden threw a perfect game on Mother's Day with his grandmother in attendance! The perfecto was the 19th in baseball history and the second one in history thrown by an Athletic (the first A's perfect game belongs to Catfish Hunter). The A's won the game by a final score of 4-0 on the back of Braden's pitching and four RBI singles.
Braden would only pitch one more year in the MLB and retired in 2011 with a career record of 26-36. Sure, he didn't have the best career, but Mother's Day 2010 couldn't have been better for him. Thanks for reading this post and I hope you enjoyed it. Check back soon for more of "all the buzz on what wuzz." And if you'd like to read about the other perfect games in MLB history, check out the Pitch Perfect chapter in my book, Amazing Aaron to Zero Zippers.
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