Harvey Haddix Pitches 12 Perfect Innings and Loses

On May 26, 1959, Harvey Haddix of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitched 12 perfect innings against the Milwaukee Braves at County Stadium, retiring 36 consecutive batters, and lost the game 1-0 in the 13th. It remains the greatest pitching performance that ended in defeat and one of the most agonizing single-game stories in baseball history.

Haddix was sick with the flu. He had taken throat lozenges throughout the day to keep from coughing. The Braves' lineup included Hank Aaron, who led the majors in hits that season, and Eddie Mathews, who would finish with 46 home runs. Haddix retired them all, inning after inning, relying almost entirely on his fastball and slider. Through 12 innings he threw an astonishingly economical 104 pitches.

His teammates gave him nothing to work with. Braves starter Lew Burdette, a former Pirate, pitched a masterful shutout of his own, scattering 12 hits across 13 innings while stranding runners repeatedly. The Pirates put men on base in nearly every inning and could not push a single run across.

The perfection ended in the bottom of the 13th. Third baseman Don Hoak fielded a grounder from Felix Mantilla and threw it into the dirt at first base. The error put Mantilla on and broke the perfect game. Mathews bunted him to second. Aaron was intentionally walked. Joe Adcock then drove a ball over the right-center field fence for what appeared to be a three-run homer, but Aaron left the basepaths early thinking the ball had not cleared the fence, and Adcock passed him. The final score was ruled 1-0.

In 1991, Major League Baseball changed the definition of a no-hitter to require a complete game, which retroactively removed Haddix's performance from the official lists. The records no longer recognize what happened. Anyone who reads the box score knows what it was.