Jameson Taillon fell painfully short of perfection on Thursday night, carrying a perfect game into the eighth inning after blowing through a daunting stretch of the Angels lineup in Taylor Ward, Shohei Ohtani, and Mike Trout for a third time in the seventh inning.
But Jared Walsh led off the eighth with a double, ending Taillon’s bid to become the first Yankee to pitch a perfect game since David Cone in 1999. Later in the inning, Taillon lost his shutout and the scoreless tie.
“I was fired up. I was kind of kicking myself for the pitch I threw to [Kurt] Suzuki,” Taillon said. “The slider got up on me a little bit…I was pretty sick about that, but our guys pressured their reliever to throw strikes…it just felt like one of those nights we were gonna make it happen.”
The Yanks failed to give Taillon any run support until his perfect game was lost, but while it was still a possibility, Taillon couldn’t help but think back to a game with the Pirates five years earlier, when Dodgers lefty Rich Hill lost his perfect game in the ninth on an error, then lost the game altogether in the 10th when Josh Harrison broke a scoreless tie with a walk-off home run.
“I think it was 2017 I saw Rich Hill threw a no-hitter through nine…he went out for the 10th and we walked it off on him,” Taillon said. “I’ve seen a no-hitter go into extras before and get wasted. More than anything, all we care about is winning. Glad we were able to pull it out.”
The Yanks did pull it out thanks to a pinch-hit, two-run single by Anthony Rizzo, getting Taillon and the Bombers the win and the series sweep. Taillon, who continues to build a strong All-Star campaign, said he was thinking much more about a win than making any history during his brilliant outing.
“There was a certain point I was sitting in the tunnel and thought some of my buddies on other teams were probably starting to be aware of it. That was the only thought that I had, honestly,” Taillon said. “Then, the fans got pretty loud and that was firing me up, but it also made me a little more aware of what was going on.”
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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