A committee of five Detroit Tigers came within two outs of the majors’ 294th no-hitter on Tuesday before Tyler Saladino tagged Neftali Felix for a one-out triple in the ninth.
Daniel Norris was throwing a perfect game through five, but he was pulled from the game because of his pitch count. Buck Farmer took the ball for the sixth and continued the perfecto, retiring Carlos Sanchez on a ground dout, Tyler Flores on foul-tipped strikeout and Saladino on another K.
Ian Krol led off the seventh inning by hitting Adam Eaton with a pitch, but he recovered to induce outs from Jose Abreau, Trayce Thompson and Melky Cabrera to keep the no-no alive.
The game remained 0-0 at that point, as the Tigers could only find green for five hits off Jose Quintana. But Victor Martinez, J.D. Martinez and James McCann led off the bottom of the seventh with back-to-back-to-back singles to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
Drew VerHagen drew the first out of the eighth on the first pitch but needed an overturned call for the second out, though the high throw by third baseman Nick Castellanos would have likely resulted in that play resulting in an error. He struck out Carlos Sanchez to end the inning.
Neftali Feliz came in for the ninth and retired pinch-hitter J.B. Schuck before giving up Saladino’s triple and an Eaton single to tie the game at 1.
There has never been a perfect game by committee.
