In today’s game, pitchers seem to be working against the clock, or more accurately, the count, when chasing a no-hitter or perfect game.
The anticipation of potentially witnessing baseball history is often coupled with the uncertainty if a manager will let their pitcher climb high enough in the pitch count column to have a chance at finishing off baseball immortality. It was a hot topic when Clayton Kershaw was pulled with a no-hitter earlier this season.
But if Gerrit Cole was able to take his perfect game bid into the eighth, or even the ninth, in Friday night’s blowout win over the Tigers, Aaron Boone wouldn’t have been looking to take him out.
“No,” Boone said bluntly with a laugh when asked if he had a pitch limit in mind to where he would have to end the bid for history.
Of course, anomalies could happen, and Boone wound up not having to envision those after Cole allowed a single with two outs in the seventh, but if Cole was still perfect, Boone was going to keep running him out there.
“If we’re into a dangerous 140-50, it’s hard to imagine him having a perfect game with those kind of numbers,” Boone said. “But I certainly would have been inclined to let him chase history.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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