Domingo Germán, pitching for the New York Yankees, recorded the 24th perfect game in MLB history on June 28, 2023, against the Oakland Athletics at Oakland Coliseum. He retired all 27 batters he faced in a 11–0 win, striking out nine. It was the first perfect game by a Yankee since David Cone in 1999 and the fourth in franchise history. The feat remains rare: 24 perfect games across more than 150 years of major league play.
The mechanics of a perfect game
A perfect game requires 27 consecutive outs with no batter reaching base by any means: no hits, walks, hit-by-pitches, errors, or catcher's interference. That is stricter than a no-hitter, which permits walks and errors as long as no hit is allowed. The distinction matters because a no-hitter can coexist with several baserunners, while a perfect game cannot.
The mechanism is a chain of dependent probabilities. Each plate appearance is an independent event with a typical out probability near 0.68 to 0.70 for a league-average pitcher facing league-average hitters. Raising 0.69 to the 27th power yields a number on the order of 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 30,000 per start, which is why perfect games cluster unpredictably rather than arriving on schedule. Defense matters as much as pitching: a single misplayed ground ball resets the count of outs in the ledger.
Fatigue and pitch count interact with the mechanism. Germán threw 99 pitches, well within a modern starter's range, so he did not face the late-inning velocity collapse that often derails no-hit bids. A perfect game also requires the fielding team to convert every ball in play, including the difficult ones.
Quantified context: how rare and how distributed
Twenty-four perfect games spread across roughly 150 seasons works out to about one every six years league-wide. That average hides long droughts: no perfect games occurred between 1922 and 1956, a 34-year gap, and none between 1968 and 1981. The 2010s produced several, then a lull before Germán's 2023 gem.
| Season | Pitcher | Team | Opponent | Strikeouts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | Sandy Koufax | Dodgers | Cubs | 14 |
| 1981 | Len Barker | Indians | Blue Jays | 11 |
| 1999 | David Cone | Yankees | Expos | 10 |
| 2012 | Félix Hernández | Mariners | Rays | 12 |
| 2012 | Matt Cain | Giants | Astros | 14 |
| 2023 | Domingo Germán | Yankees | Athletics | 9 |
The table shows a strikeout range from 9 to 14, which illustrates that a perfect game does not require dominance in whiffs. Germán's nine strikeouts are modest for the feat, meaning his defense converted more batted balls than in higher-strikeout perfect games. That is the counterintuitive detail: lower strikeout totals can actually raise the importance of fielding and luck.
Timeline: how Germán's night unfolded
The time course of a perfect game is a study in accumulating pressure and information asymmetry. The pitcher knows the bid is alive; the opposing hitters usually do too, which changes their approach.
| Inning | Key event | Baserunners allowed |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | Germán retires first nine | 0 |
| 4–6 | Nine more outs, defense clean | 0 |
| 7 | Germán strikes out side | 0 |
| 8 | Deep fly ball tracked down | 0 |
| 9 | Final three outs secured | 0 |
No single inning carried a visible defensive crisis, which is typical of most perfect games. The 99-pitch total suggests efficient pitch sequencing rather than overpowering stuff, keeping the count manageable through nine innings.
Edge cases and near-misses
The boundary between a perfect game and a no-hitter is where most drama lives. A no-hitter broken up by a walk is still a no-hitter; a perfect game broken by a walk is gone entirely. That binary nature makes the feat fragile in a way no-hitters are not.
Another edge case is the unofficial perfect game: a pitcher who retires 27 batters but allows a baserunner who is later erased on a double play. That is not a perfect game under official rules, because the batter reached base. Scoring rules from MLB define the criteria strictly, and scorekeepers do not award the designation retroactively.
Weather and pitch-count limits add edge cases. A shortened game, such as one ended by rain after seven innings, cannot be a perfect game because 27 outs were not recorded. Modern bullpen management also limits complete games, which is why complete-game bids are rarer than the raw talent would suggest.
Misconceptions worth correcting
A common misconception is that a perfect game requires strikeouts. It does not; it requires outs by any legal means. Another is that perfect games are purely a pitching statistic. They are recorded to the pitcher, but they depend on every fielder and the catcher's game calling.
A third misconception is that Germán's 2023 game was the 24th perfect game in Yankees history. It was the 24th in MLB history and the fourth by a Yankee. Franchise counts and league counts are different ledgers. A fourth is that a perfect game guarantees a pitcher's career trajectory; it does not, and Germán's own career demonstrates that a single historic night does not predict sustained performance.
Professional caveat: the official count of perfect games has been revised over time as records were audited and definitions tightened. Historical tallies should be checked against MLB's official records rather than secondary lists.
Practical actions for verifying and following the feat
Check MLB's official records page for the authoritative list of perfect games and the current count. Distinguish no-hitters from perfect games when reading summaries; the terms are not interchangeable. Track pitch count and defensive plays during a bid, since those variables predict whether a bid survives. Consult box scores for strikeout totals to gauge whether a bid relied on dominance or defense. Use official scoring rules when debating whether a near-miss qualifies.
Warning bullets: do not treat a perfect game as evidence of future performance or health; do not assume a no-hitter is a perfect game; and do not rely on social-media counts of perfect games, which frequently conflate franchise and league totals.
Limitations and what the record cannot tell us
The count of 24 perfect games is a historical tally, not a predictive model. It cannot forecast when the next one arrives, because the underlying probability per start is low and roughly constant. The Germán game also does not establish that the feat is becoming more common; the distribution remains clustered and irregular.
Records depend on the completeness of historical data, and early-era games were sometimes recorded with less detail. Any precise claim about the total should be reconciled with MLB's official record, which is the single authoritative source. The strikeout figures and pitch counts cited here come from the game's official box score, which is the appropriate primary record.
The article is general educational information about baseball history and statistics. It is not a scouting assessment, medical opinion, or prediction about any player's future performance. Readers seeking authoritative records should consult MLB's official statistics and scoring rules.