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Sounds
Perfect
30-Year-Old Hurler Tosses 1st Perfect Game In Nashville Sounds' 26-Year
Franchise History.
NASHVILLE -04.08.03 - It was John Wasdin's world on Monday evening in Nashville.
The 30-year-old
Nashville Sounds starter fired the first perfect game in the
team's 26-year history in a 4-0, 100-pitch victory over the visiting
Albuquerque Isotopes at Greer Stadium in the opening game of a
four-game series
in front of 1,946 excited fans.
Wasdin (1-0)
struck out Isotopes pinch-hitter Robert Stratton on three
pitches to close the game before he was mobbed by his teammates just in
front of the mound following his first start of the 2003 season.
"It
hasn't even hit me yet," a humble Wasdin said to a group of reporters
on
the field following the game. "I'll try to enjoy it but I have to get
back
to work tomorrow with my running."
Wasdin matched
a Nashville individual-game record with 15 strikeouts in the
contest, including the final two batters he faced, to etch his name in the
record books. Seventy-two of his 100 pitches were thrown for strikes.
Nashville
manager Trent Jewett addressed the entire Sounds team about the
night's significance in the Greer Stadium clubhouse immediately following
the game.
"A
lot of you have been in baseball a long time, but what you just
witnessed, you'll never see anything more magical or more difficult,"
Jewett
said. "Absolutely unbelievable."
Nashville
third baseman Mike Gulan provided the biggest defensive play
behind Wasdin, snaring a sharply-hit Matt Treanor line drive back-handed
just inside the third-base line to record the first out of the ninth inning.
Gulan also
made an outstanding barehand play on a Jesus Medrano bunt in the
top of the fourth inning to nail the Albuquerque leadoff hitter by a step
at
first.
Wasdin's
perfect game was Nashville's first no-hit effort since Jack
Armstrong tossed one against Indianapolis on August 7, 1988, and was the
fourth by a Sounds hurler and eighth overall in a game involving the Sounds.
Oklahoma
City's Rick Helling fired a perfect game against the Sounds in
Oklahoma in August 1986.
Lost in
the euphoria of Wasdin's achievement is the fact that Nashville
pitchers have now posted 34 consecutive shutout innings, dating back four
games to the third inning of the season opener on April 3rd against Iowa.
The Sounds
opened the night's scoring in the bottom of the second inning,
scoring a pair of unearned runs as a result of two Isotopes errors.
Adam Hyzdu
(1-for-3) doubled the advantage to 4-0 with one swing of the bat in
the bottom of the sixth when he belted his first home run of the season, a
two-run shot to left-center off Albuquerque starter Nate Teut.
Gulan was
sharp at the plate as well as in the field, continuing his hot
hitting by going 3-for-4 in the game to improve his average to a
team-leading .471 (8-for-17) over the first four games.
Teut (0-1)
was tagged with the loss after allowing all four runs in his 5.0
innings.
