See also: List of Major League Baseball perfect games and Nippon Professional Baseball § Perfect games Although it is theoretically possible for several pitchers to combine for a perfect game (which has happened 11 times in MLB no-hitters), every MLB perfect game so far has been thrown by a single pitcher. The first known use of the term perfect game was in 1908 its current definition was formalized in 1991. Games in which a team reaches first base only in extra innings also do not qualify as perfect games. Games that last fewer than nine innings, regardless of whether this is due to weather or because they were part of doubleheaders (which are now seven innings due to another 2020 rule change) in which a team has no baserunners do not qualify as perfect games. A fielding error that does not allow a batter to reach base, such as a misplayed foul ball, does not spoil a perfect game. Until a rule change in 2020, a perfect game was also necessarily a win and a shutout. A perfect game, by definition, is also a no-hitter.
The feat has been achieved 23 times in MLB history – 21 times since the modern era began in 1901, most recently by Félix Hernández of the Seattle Mariners on August 15, 2012. To achieve a perfect game, a team must not allow any opposing player to reach base by any means: no hits, walks, hit batsmen, uncaught third strikes, catcher's or fielder's interference, or fielding errors in short, "27 up, 27 down" (for a nine-inning game). The "everlasting image" of New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra leaping into the arms of pitcher Don Larsen after the completion of Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series Ī perfect game in Major League Baseball is a game by a pitcher (or combination of pitchers) that lasts a minimum of nine innings with no batter reaching any base.