The Perfecto: A first-hand account of Matt Cain's perfect game from the stands at AT&T Park

By Dallas McMurry

Wednesday night I had the opportunity to go see my favorite team play for the only time all year long. I was pretty happy to go to the game seeing as how I wouldn’t be able to make any trips to AT&T all year long due to school in San Diego. I figured the day would go as most Giants games I attend: I’d go there, root hard, and watch my team play a game against the Astros, nothing too special, as the Astros have no real star power. The most exciting thing for me going into the game was “hey, I’ve never seen Matt Cain pitch in person, so I’m excited to see him, and the Giants better not bench Posey tonight.” Strange I had never seen Matt Cain pitch, I’ve seen Livan Hernadez, Russ Ortiz, Jason Schmidt, Lincecum, Zito, Bumgarner, Todd Wellemeyer, and Jonathan Sanchez, over my travels to San Francisco, but never Matt Cain.  Cain was always my favorite Giant pitcher since he was called up Yes, Lincecum was “the Freak”, but Cain came up in a year where the giants really needed to find a new pitcher, and his personality was one that makes you think he’s just a normal guy who just wants to win games.

            However, my thought process for this game was that it’d be one of those close games where the Giants can’t hit a lick, and Matt Cain had to do everything for the team. I love my Giants but I think you can’t be a real Giant fan unless you’re a skeptic, good stuff isn’t supposed to happen to us. Maybe that’s all changed since 2010, but I doubted I’d ever be able to shake my doubts.

           
          Anyway, as I arrived to the game my first mission was to buy a new Giants hat at the Dugout store. The last time I bought a hat there was 2010, and the Giants won the world series that year, so being a superstitious baseball geek I figured I needed to do this again in order to give the Giants any kind of chance this year. I got my hat, a Posey shirt to replace the Wilson tee I was currently wearing  and made my way to my seats. I got to my seats where I watched the Astros take BP and went to grab some food before the first pitch.

            Game time, it was 7:15  and Matt Cain throws a first pitch strike to start the game (his first of 19 on the night). Cain pitches a great inning and gets out of it 1-2-3 with two K’s and the Giants are due up. Since Cain was pitching tonight I just figured Giants would do something dumb, start game with 2 guys on and hit into a double play or something like that. However, I was gladly wrong. The game becomes  the most fun Giants game I’ve ever been to once Cabrera steps up to the plate. I can hear this guy next to me yelling to his friend “dude you’ve got to check this out there is a guy in the cove on a JETPACK! It’s crazy!” The guy replies, “whatever man, hold on I wanna see Melky hit.” I’m thinking, “nice this guy’s a true fan next to me. There is a dude in the cove on a jetpack and he doesn’t even care.” Neither did I, however I wanted Cabrera do something. First pitch and boom, two run homerun. I’m thinking “sweet! That’s the ball game we’ve got Cain a two run lead already , this is over,” then I take a quick glance to the Cove, and sure enough there is jetpack dude, just flying in the bay, no big deal.  Two more outs and inning over, Cain gets ready to take the mound.

            Inning two  starts and again Cain goes 1-2-3 with a K. At this point Cain already looks dialed in, he’s hitting every single spot and gets the Giants back to the plate. For the second straight game Belt goes yard and the Giants get a total of three runs in the bottom of the second , I text some friends, “This is the most UnMatt Cain game ever, 5-0 in the third?” Again Cain goes 1-2-3  with two more K’s,  and I’m pretty into the game at this point; the Giants are hitting, Cain is dealing - looks like it’ll be a blowout. Jokingly I think only a no hitter is going to keep all these fans here tonight. Who knew?

So once Cain takes the mound in the fourth I get the first real thought of a perfect game,  I wondered if Cain had given a hit up yet and then look to the scoreboard see a 0 in the Astros hit column and think, “cool I can root for a perfect game now,” still Jokingly, but now it’s at least on my mind, but it wasn’t until the fifth inning until I had concern about the perfecto.

In the bottom of the fifth Cain hits a single between shortstop and third base and I’m thinking, “oh great Cain is going to have to run the bases now and get tired, we need to get him off soon.” Sure enough next batter is Blanco, and he drives it for a home run, getting Cain off base and letting him rest. It’s now a full-on blowout 10-0 after the fifth with Cain in complete control.

As the sixth inning starts I’m thinking “I may actually be witnessing the best pitching performance in Giants history tonight.” And not just me, but everyone else at the park knew that Cain had a shot at this perfecto as well; every out was electric after the fifth inning. Then in the sixth I thought it was all over. Snyder hit a ball off Cain that looked like a no-doubt home run, but Melky just kept running I was thinking “ here it is, he’s going to  rob the homer for that one play every no-hitter needs.” But the ball just somehow died, and fell right at the warning track for a rather routine fly ball. 42,000 people let out a big sigh of relief, then one giant cheer. After that I looked at my dad and we both knew the situation, but neither of us said a word, just “Cain’s pitching pretty good, 11 K’s already” trying to follow the golden rule of no-hitters by not jinxing it.

            From the seventh inning on the entire crowd was filled with energy on every pitch, by far the loudest I’ve ever heard at a baseball game. The seventh inning is where just about anyone will be able to tell you they knew Cain was going to get the perfect game and it came right after the amazing catch by Blanco. I don’t think I’ve ever been so into a game  like this. As soon as that ball was hit  I’m yelling “crap there it is, it’s over…wait Blanco is still running like he’s going to catch it,  no way he’s actually going to get there.” He then makes the greatest catch I’ve ever seen in person and the crowd just goes nuts.

           
I’m talking you would have thought we just won the world series again. Everyone is jumping up and down, high fiving people who they don’t even know. After that play it felt like it was destined. That was it, the one play that needs to happen to make a perfect game. Was it by sheer luck that the Giants had just changed their outfield to shift left? Nope, it was the baseball gods repaying Matt Cain. That had to be the only explanation, here I am in San Francisco watching what could be the greatest pitching performance in the history of baseball, I couldn’t think of anything else. As the seventh inning ended I’m  just hoping the Giants at bats go quickly, I just want to see Cain back on the mound.

At this point I’m doing anything I can to not jinx the game and I mean anything. It was so cold outside but I hadn’t had my sweatshirt on all night, so I couldn’t put it on, my belt felt so awkward and needed to be fixed, but it had been that way all night so why change it now? I couldn’t do anything to mess with the karma of the game. That’s what makes these situations so great, the suspense of every single pitch. Cain knows he has the perfect game. You can tell he’s trying to stay calm but you can see his nerves as he skips one to the plate as it hits the backstop for a ball. Still Cain strikes out one more batter in the eighth and ends the inning, still perfect.

I can’t sit down at this point I’m too excited, it seems another 40,000+ felt the same way as then everyone stood and waited for the giants to get to the top of the ninth, thankfully the Giants went 1-2-3 and Cain walked out to the mound. I look at my dad and we just say “this is it, Giants can get a win here, Cain’s at 14K’s this game, pretty impressive.”  Not a single word about the perfecto, no way is this going to be my fault for talking about it. All game I’ve told myself he can do it, but he won’t, it can’t happen because I’m at the game, this is still the Giants, I’m trying to make myself not believe its going to happen. But I couldn’t help it when Cain takes the mound and the entire place erupts. I can’t help but yell as loud as I can either, taking in the moment. “Screw it this IS going to happen it’s MATT CAIN.” First batter and a fly ball to Melky that’s just foul but caught.

Out number one.

Everyone is as loud as they possibly could be as Cain takes on batter number two, it’s Snyder again and he already had a nicely hit ball that Cabrera caught at the wall so I’m pretty nervous. Snyder ends up getting out in front and under a ball and hits a fly ball to Melky again.

Out number two.

At this point I’ve never been more excited. Not the 2010 world series win even, maybe it was the fact I was at the ballpark, one of 42,000 in the entire world, and history of the Giants to ever witness this game. That’s when Castro came to the plate as a pinch  hitter. Great, this Stanford alum is going to ruin everything, he probably has family at the game, he has every reason in the world to want to stop this perfect game. Cain was at 124 pitches with a 1-2 count he steps off the mound and takes a look around the park, soaking in the moment and the crowd somehow gets even louder as Cain gets back to the mound and then throws pitch 125. It’s a well hit ball to Arias, the kind that you can just beat out for a hit, but Arias fields it perfectly as everyone holds their breath and then fires a bullet to Belt at first, beating Castro to the bag by at least two steps.

Out number three. Out number twenty-seven.

That was it, I just witnessed the greatest pitching performance in Giants history, I must have been yelling for a good 10 minutes non-stop. I couldn’t believe it. I high fived my dad a couple of times  as we couldn’t hold in the emotions, it was crazy every single fan was jumping up and down as if we had just hit a walk-off homerun in Game 7 of the world series. 128 years and no Giant has ever done it and I was there to witness it. It was no doubt the greatest game of my life, and something that I’ll be able to talk about for years. As the crowd started to calm Amy G  began to interview  Cain, after just being mobbed by the whole team he went on to talk about the best game of his life. As they interviewed him I was starting to think, it had to be Matt Cain.  It had to be him to accomplish this feat.  I don’t think there is a guy who deserves it more than him.  The only way to describe Matt Cain is that he is Matt Cain. That’s it there’s no one like him. A great personality and a better pitcher, and there will only ever be one Matt Cain.