Enough with the early exits in potentially historic moments.
That’s the message Fox Sports NFL play-by-play extraordinaire and MLB host Kevin Burkhardt preached Wednesday night after a second MLB team pulled a starter with a perfect game within a week.
The Pirates yanked starter Jared Jones after six innings with a perfect game intact Wednesday only for the bullpen to blow it, while the Marlins did the same Saturday but after seven flawless frames from Eury Perez.
“We are normalizing taking dudes out with perfect games now,” Burkhardt, the former SNY Mets reporter, wrote on X on Wednesday night. “Wtf are we doing. 2 in the last week.”
There’s certainly a debate to be had about what the right protocol is when it comes to pitchers chasing moments that will stand the last of time.
MLB teams are hesitant to allow starters to throw 133 pitches in pursuit of history like the Mets did when they allowed Johan Santana to do so in June 2012 when he tallied the team’s first no-hitter.
Part of the tough part of being a manager is protecting a player from himself.
But there’s a fine line between throwing 133 pitches and letting a player pitch deeper into a game and accomplishing a life-changing feat.
The Marlins pulled Perez on Sunday after he retired all 21 batters he faced on 92 pitches, and his replacement, Lake Bachar, immediately walked the first batter he faced and later yielded a single.
Manager Clayton McCullough made the long-term call over the short-term one, with the outing marking Perez’s third after being sidelined with an injury.
Fans in Sacramento chanted “Shame” when he exited the game.’
“There was a part of my heartstrings pulling at his opportunity to keep on going, but I have to think about Eury and our organization, our team and what’s best moving forward to give us a chance to continue winning games,” McCullough said postgame. “Going into this game, 90-plus was the pitch count, but … us looking to play beyond the regular season, Eury’s going to be an important part of that.”
Jones needed just 77 pitches to retire 18 Braves on Wednesday, but the team pulled him early since he only returned in late May from UCL surgery last year.
The Pirates have yet to allow Jones to throw more than 81 pitches.
“Wanting guys to stay healthy is the number one thing with these guys because we need Jared for the rest of the season throwing the ball like that,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said.
“Trying to push him right now when he’s only had five ups – there’s just no way.”
Jones said he “completely understands” the decision.
“Coming into the game we thought we were going to get five [innings] and the pitch count was low, so they sent me back out there for the sixth,” Jones said. “That was all I had tonight.”
The Blue Jays actually took the opposite route Wednesday with veteran Dylan Cease, who lost his no-hit bid in the ninth inning on his 118th pitch in a 10-0 win over the Giants.
Toronto manager John Schneider had zero qualms about letting Cease run up his pitch count.
“I’m a fan of baseball. If a guy has a chance to throw a no-hitter, you let him do it, and I think you make the adjustments after that,” Schneider said, per MLB.com. “Dylan, he’s done it before, and he’s really durable. He’s in the category where you can be pretty aggressive with it. It’s not very often you get to see that, so if I can let a player have that opportunity, I’m going to do it every single time.”
The Marlins and Pirates’ decisions showed part of the reason why there has been just one perfect game since 2012, with Domingo German last accomplishing the feat with the Yankees in 2023.
Blake Snell achieved the last single-pitcher no-hitter in 2024 with the Giants.
