DETROIT -- Tigers right-hander Armando Galarraga nearly made history, and might have anyway. He fell one batter and a botched call shy of a perfect game, settling for a one-hitter in a 3-0 Tigers victory over the Indians on Wednesday night at Comerica Park.
What would've been the third perfect game this season and the first in Tigers history instead ended up with a controversial ending when rookie Jason Donald hit a ground ball to first with two outs in the ninth inning. Miguel Cabrera fielded it towards the hole and flipped to Galarraga covering first, but first-base umpire Jim Joyce ruled Galarraga didn't have his foot on the bag.
Replays showed Galarraga had his foot on the bag before Donald got there. The play was ruled an infield single, breaking up the no-hitter as well as the perfect game.
"I just cost that kid a perfect game," Joyce said. "I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay. It was the biggest call of my career."
Galarraga said he gave Joyce a hug when Joyce apologized to him after the game.
"He really feels bad," Galarraga said. "He probably feels more bad than me. Nobody is perfect. I give a lot of credit to that guy. That (an apology) doesn't happen. He apologized. He feels really bad. Nobody is perfect. What am I gonna do? His body language said more than a lot of words. His eyes were watery, he didn't have too say much. His body language said a lot."
Galarraga retired Trevor Crowe to preserve the shutout, but Tigers players Gerald Laird and Jeremy Bonderman took a detour from the postgame celebration to have words with Joyce, as did manager Jim Leyland.
"That's the nature of the business, that's just the way it is. The players are human, the umpires are human, the managers are human, the writers are human," Leyland said. "We all make mistakes. It's a crying shame. Jimmy's a real good umpire, has been for a long time. He probably got it wrong."
The play in question came two batters after Austin Jackson made a basket catch in deep left-center field to preserve the bid for perfection.
"He's human," Jackson said of Joyce. "He made a mistake, but at the same time, we did get the win. In our minds, that was a perfect game. We're taking it as that. It ranks right up there with the best."
It would've been an incredible feat for someone who wasn't in the Detroit rotation until a few weeks ago and was skipped in the rotation last weekend. But on a night when Cleveland batters kept swinging and missing at Galarraga's retooled slider, the Venezuelan sent down the first 26 batters in order in remarkably efficient fashion. He finished with 88 pitches, 67 of them for strikes.
Galarraga's first start since May 22 showed none of the rust one might have expected and all of the bite in his slider that the Tigers hoped to see after extra work in the bullpen. He didn't face a three-ball count until Travis Hafner worked one leading off the fifth.
Until Jackson's catch, the only challenging defensive play the Indians mustered through eight innings was Russell Branyan's comebacker to end the fifth. Galarraga deflected it, but right to third baseman Brandon Inge, who fired to first for the out.
Galarraga barely had any time to let his arm cool down. Detroit held a slim 1-0 lead, with Miguel Cabrera's second-inning solo homer accounting for the lone run. Cleveland's Fausto Carmona was working almost as efficiently as Galarraga for quick outs, finishing with 96 pitches.
Galarraga seemed to get stingier as the game got deeper. He needed just 10 pitches to retire the side in the fifth, eight pitches to do the same in the sixth, then tossed a six-pitch seventh and an 11-pitch eighth.
Dallas Braden tossed the 19th perfect game in Major League history May 9 against the Rays. Roy Halladay made it 20 with a perfect outing against the Marlins on Saturday.
No Tigers hurler has pitched a perfect game. Justin Verlander pitched Detroit's last no-hitter, on June 12, 2007, against the Brewers.
