A's fan dabs behind home plate in an effort to thwart Colby Lewis' perfect-game bid
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Rangers right-hander Colby Lewis sailed through the early innings in Thursday's 5-1 win over the A's, retiring the first 23 Oakland hitters in succession. He was pretty fantastic throughout the entire afternoon:
Repeating what he did in Arlington last September against the A's, Lewis carried a perfect-game attempt into the eighth inning on Thursday. With Lewis facing Danny Valencia to start the frame, one young A's fan seated in the Diamond Level seats behind home plate began dabbing between pitches, perhaps in an effort to distract Lewis from his task. While it's unclear if the kid's presence made a difference, Lewis did wind up walking Yonder Alonso, with one out left in the eighth, on four pitches to lose the perfecto:
Lewis would finish the eighth with the no-hitter intact, but lost that in the ninth after Nomar Mazara couldn't hold on to Max Muncy's drive to deep right field:
He did wind up with a complete-game victory, though, so it wasn't all bad.
Judging by how few have actually happened over the years, perfect games are hard to pull off. Let this be the latest example of that fact ...