Taking a perfect game into the ninth inning, Baker fanned nine and threw 111 pitches in the 5-0 Twins victory, which lasted just over two hours.
The 25-year-old righty walked catcher John Buck on five pitches to lead off the ninth, erasing his chance to pitch just the 18th perfect game in big league history. Of course, he got the very next batter, Esteban German, to ground into a force out.
Mike Sweeney, who was activated from the DL prior to the game, came in as a pinch-hitter and belted one into short left-center to break up Baker's no-hit bid.
The feat marks Baker's first complete game shut-out, which had fans on their feet from roughly the seventh inning on.
4 comments:
So close. Yet so far.
I was at the Twinbill and we actually weren't even going to stick around for Baker's game. Good thing we did! What a heart breaker in the ninth, though. You could see on fans faces how sick everyone felt after the walk, not to mention Sweeney's hit.
Baker is awesome. He's young yet and inexperienced, but this season has done him a lot of good. Wait 'til next year when it's him following Johan and Liriano...
Like Jacob said before... I was also there (mostly for my kirby bronze statue..) and we had thought about leaving early after being there most of the day.. nate pointed out in the third inning "what if baker is pitching a no hitter" we said then and only then we'd stay..
needless to say i hate that frickin' mike s-weenie...
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