Defense Independent Perfect Games

I love defense-independent pitching staffs. I love them because a poorly positioned outfielder lets a hit drop him and then the pitcher gets blamed. I love them because a third basemen cant react fast enough when playing in on the line and a ball gets by him into left field. I love them because a shortstop and second basemen but defer to the other on a slow roller and someone ends up on first. How much pitchers actually do control is up for debate but many in sabermetrics think that once ball meets bat, unless that ball is hit over the fence, the pitcher is now out of the equation. I like this. It has its flaws, there is a fair debate to be had over whether or not a pitcher induces people to roll over and induce "weak contact" as opposed to screaming line drives, but it is simple and I think a decent measure, if far from perfect, of true pitcher performance. FIP is a common stat that I use on this blog. It is scaled to the ERA scale so that sub-3.00 is very good, sub-4.00 is solid, and so on. It measures three outcomes that it says pitchers are responsible for: 1) Strikeouts, 2) Bases on Balls and 3) Home Runs. Therefore a pitcher who keeps their walks and home runs (the two negative outcomes) to a minimum can have a very tidy and low FIP much like Brandon McCarthy - who with 1.3 BB/9 and just 0.6 HR/9 managed to get an AL-leading 2.86 FIP. But if a pitcher can't control hits and their existence is a mere derivative of luck, a pitcher can be perfect in performing their duties if they do not walk anyone nor surrender a home run. With that in mind, let's take a look back at McCarthy's September 3rd start versus the Seattle Mariners.

In that game, McCarthy went the full nine, striking out ten, walking no one, and allowing no home runs. Defense-independent perfection! However, three Mariners got base hits: Dustin Ackley in the fourth inning, Ichiro Suzuki in the sixth inning, and Josh Bard in the eighth inning. Furthermore in the fifth inning Kyle Seager got on base on Cliff Pennington error. Far from team perfection, the defense let McCarthy down allowing three hits and an error. It is often said when a perfect game occurs it is a team effort and many games have defensive gems that are remembered for salvaging the game, like the leaping catch Dewayne Wise made in saving Mark Buehrle's perfect game. But how often does pitcher perfection happen? I was curious and looked it up. Using this definition of a "defense independent perfect game", a complete nine inning game where a pitcher walks no one and surrenders no home run, here is a list of this more common feat in A's history.

Since the A's moved to Oakland, A's pitcher have pitched 997 complete games. Only 94 or 9.4% have happened without a pitcher allowing a walk or home run. The feat was once more common as you can see, even happening in both ends of a doubleheader in 1968 at Comiskey Park. The two perfect games (fielding included) are obviously on the list. Oakland's first defense-independent perfect game was Catfish Hunter's perfect game in 1968 whereas Dallas Braden's perfect game was the first of his two defense-independent perfect games in 2010.

Just like real perfect games which go from pitchers of Hall of Fame caliber like Catfish Hunter to pitchers who we may love but would otherwise be relegated forgotten in the annals of history like Dallas Braden had he not had 27 up and 27 down, these defense independent perfect games have all types of pitchers on them. But it is a fun list and if it weren't for those pesky eight other fielders letting in some hits there are 92 other guys here who did everything they were supposed to do.