There were a lot of bad memories from 1994 because of the strike. Great runs and exciting record chases were tainted by the way it all ended, with the cancellation of the postseason and World Series. There was one moment though that was safe to stand on it's own without being ruined. Kenny Rogers of all people, hurled a perfect game against the California Angels.
On July 28, 1994, the Rangers hosted the Angels with the specter of the strike looming just a couple weeks away. The Ballpark at Arlington was known as a very friendly hitters park, but on this night Rogers gave the Angels no chance to take advantage, as they cruised to a 4-0 win. Kenny kept his pitch count under 100 and only went to a 3-ball count three times as he struck out 8.
The game was a bit of revenge for the Rangers. 10 years before, Mike Witt of the Angels pitched a perfect game of his own against the Rangers. This is currently the only instance of the same two teams pitching perfect games against each other. It's also the only two perfect games both teams were ever apart of, while teams like the White Sox and Dodgers have been on both the winning and losing sides of perfect games, just never against the same teams like the Angels-Rangers combos were.
Rogers would go on to have the best year of his career in 1995, then win a World Series the following year, but it's hard to compete with a perfect game as your career high point, even with a control of merely 1. Suffice to say, the Angels were unable to pull off any cheap 20 rolls on this day, and other than that double, they were kicking rocks on that chart.
One of the no-brainer Catchers to be able to call a perfect game, Pudge added the accomplishment to his resume while his career continued to take off. Not only did he guide Rogers through 9 perfect innings, he added his bat to the cause with a 3th inning homer to finish all the scoring Kenny would need.
Canseco can be a one-man offense most days, and he definitely fit the bill for the perfect game. Jose bashed a 1st inning homer and followed it up with another long ball in the 3rd.
Life can be pretty unfair for rookies called up into the season. Even more unfair when they have to pitch in Texas with a chart like Lorraine's (the dingers he surrendered were against a couple big time hitters, but perhaps one or two were his charts fault). And much more unfair when they opposing pitcher is pitching a perfect game. Needless to say, Andrew was not getting his first career Win on this day.
Three solo homers supplies Kenny Rogers with lots of offense, but one of those runs in the 4-0 win were because of Dean Palmer and his 2 out RBI single.
Rusty Greer saved the perfect game with a diving catch in the 9th inning. He also made the final catch to put the game into the history books.
Rex Hudler was the man in the 9th who almost ruined Rogers' bid at perfection. Rogers got him to 0-2 and was trying to K Hudler for the 2nd time when he made contact and made Rusty Greer work for that out.
