Billy Pierce Loses a Perfect Game with Two Outs in the Ninth

On June 27, 1958, Chicago White Sox left-hander Billy Pierce retired the first 26 Washington Senators batters he faced at Comiskey Park. He was one out away from a perfect game. Then pinch-hitter Ed Fitz Gerald lined a first-pitch fastball down the right field line for a double, and the perfect game vanished.

Pierce had been dominant all evening. He struck out nine batters and had a three-ball count on only two hitters the entire game. The Senators' lineup was thin, a last-place club with little firepower, and Pierce's combination of fastballs and sliders kept them off balance from the first pitch. His defense played flawlessly behind him.

With two outs in the ninth, Senators manager Cookie Lavagetto sent Fitz Gerald up to hit for pitcher Russ Kemmerer. Fitz Gerald was a backup catcher with a .230 career batting average and no business being the man to end a perfect game. He went up hacking. His opposite-field line drive landed about a foot inside the foul line and rolled to the wall in right-center. The crowd of roughly 11,300 groaned.

Pierce gathered himself and struck out the next batter, Albie Pearson, on three pitches to complete a one-hit, 3-0 shutout. The fans gave him a standing ovation, but Pierce sat alone in the clubhouse for several minutes before speaking to reporters.

The near-miss carried extra historical weight. No left-handed pitcher had thrown a perfect game since Lee Richmond in 1880, and only one American League lefty, Mel Parnell in 1956, had thrown even a no-hitter since 1931. In all of modern baseball history to that point, there had been only three regular-season perfect games, by Cy Young in 1904, Addie Joss in 1908, and Charlie Robertson in 1922. Pierce came within one batter of joining that exclusive list.

Pierce was a seven-time All-Star who finished his career with 211 wins, a 3.27 ERA, and 1,999 strikeouts over 18 seasons. No White Sox pitcher accumulated more strikeouts. He never got closer to a perfect game than he was on that June evening, one out away.