Baseball · 1956 · New York, USA
The Only Perfect Game
A New York Yankees pitcher with an unremarkable regular-season record retires all 27 Brooklyn Dodgers batters he faces, still the only perfect game ever thrown in World Series history.
Yankees 2-0 Dodgers
Result
27, all retired
Batters faced
97
Pitches thrown
Don Larsen had gone 11-5 for the Yankees in the 1956 regular season and had been pulled early from his previous World Series start against the Brooklyn Dodgers after struggling with his control, hardly the profile of a pitcher about to make history. Starting Game 5 at Yankee Stadium on 8 October, he worked from a no-windup delivery he had only recently adopted and found remarkable command from the first inning.
Larsen retired all 27 Dodgers batters he faced in order, allowing no hits, no walks, and no baserunners of any kind, a perfect game, only the fifth in modern major league history and the only one ever thrown in a World Series, before or since. Brooklyn's lineup that day included several future Hall of Famers, including Jackie Robinson, none of whom reached base.
The final out came on a called third strike against pinch hitter Dale Mitchell, after which catcher Yogi Berra ran out and leapt into Larsen's arms, an image that became one of the sport's most iconic photographs. The Yankees won the game 2-0 and went on to win the series in seven games, but it is Larsen's single afternoon of perfection that is remembered as the defining moment of that World Series.
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