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Oakland, California. Dallas Braden’s handful of major league wins grew by one on Sunday, and it was one that will live in the annals of baseball.

Braden, an Oakland Athletics left-hander, pitched a perfect game against the visiting Tampa Bay Rays in a 4-0 victory. It was the 19th perfect game in major league history and the 18th victory of Braden’s career.

Braden gained a measure of fame last month when he criticized the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez for crossing the mound after a foul ball, supposedly violating an unwritten rule of baseball etiquette. Rodriguez dismissed Braden then as having only a handful of wins.

Braden hugged his grandmother, Peggy Lindsey, on the field after the game, a Mother’s Day moment that was especially touching because Lindsey raised Braden after his mother, Jodie Atwood, died of skin cancer when he was a senior in high school.

Apparently, Lindsey is just as feisty as her grandson. When she met with reporters after the game, she said, “Stick it, A-Rod!”

Told of Lindsey’s comment after the Yankees’ loss to the Red Sox in Boston on Sunday, Rodriguez threw his arms up and said, “Uncle, uncle,” as he walked away from reporters. He was more measured before the game, noting Braden beat the team the Yankees are chasing in the American League East.

“Good for him, he threw a perfect game,” Rodriguez said. “And even better, he beat the Rays.”

Braden did it by striking out six and throwing 109 pitches for his first career complete game. He retired Gabe Kapler on a grounder to shortstop Cliff Pennington for the final out. In Chicago last July, Kapler hit the deep fly ball in the ninth inning that the White Sox’s DeWayne Wise corralled at the wall, saving Mark Buehrle’s perfect game.

Kapler was a tough out for Braden in the sixth inning on Sunday, seeing 12 pitches before fouling out. In the ninth, he swung at Braden’s 3-1 fastball and bounced it to Pennington, who threw to first baseman Daric Barton to end the game.

Braden lifted his arms as Barton and catcher Landon Powell embraced him. Braden pointed to the sky to honor his mother and soon found Lindsey, wearing a pink and white A’s cap, by the Oakland dugout for a tearful hug.

The perfect game significantly raises the profile of Braden, who grew up in Stockton, California, and joined the Athletics as a 24th-round draft choice out of Texas Tech in 2004.

In an interview with Baseball America three years later, Braden said he partied too much in high school and fell in with the wrong crowd, jeopardizing his baseball potential.

“I came real close to taking it away from myself. Then my grandmother stepped in and kind of slapped me back into shape and got me going,” he said. “I told my grandma that someday she would watch me pitch in the majors.”

Braden reached the Athletics in 2007 but went 1-8 with a 6.72 earned run average. He has improved each year since, and in an interview last Wednesday with CSNBayArea.com, he defended his place in the game.

“I didn’t know that there was a criteria in order to compete against A-Rod,” he said. “I didn’t know that. I’m pretty sure that everybody that dons a major league uniform has earned the right to pitch at this level, and has earned the right to face whomever steps in that batter’s box.”

In that same interview, Braden acknowledged never having met Rodriguez. However, he called him “an individualistic player” and said he was “not a fan of his antics,” a reference to other questionable plays in Rodriguez’s career.

Braden also said the mound-crossing incident should teach Rodriguez to respect the game’s unwritten rules, though many baseball people said they were unaware of the one about treading on the mound.

Yet Braden has said he believed so strongly in it he would have had the same reaction if his grandmother had committed the offense.



The New York Times