PHOENIX — Ryne Nelson carried a perfect game into the sixth inning on Saturday, but it was broken up when Kansas City Royals catcher Freddy Fermin hit a line drive into center off the Arizona Diamondbacks starter.
The crowd of 26,043 at Chase Field made their appreciation for the stopper known after the hit, as pitching has been a struggle for the team much of the year.
The 5.1 innings Nelson had completed was the longest a Diamondbacks starter had gone without giving up a hit since Merrill Kelly had a no-hit bid through 5.2 innings on June 5.
Randy Johnson’s perfect game in May 2004 remains the only one in franchise history.
Nelson worked efficiently the first time through the Royals’ order, needing only 30 pitches — 23 of which were strikes — to sit down all nine batters.
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He got four runs worth of support while he sustained the bid for two more innings. Fermin’s hit was the first of three in the sixth for Kansas City, earning the Royals their only run off Nelson.
Nelson exited after completing seven innings (86 pitches), his longest start of the season. He gave up four hits while striking out five. It was also his second straight start without walking any batters.
However, even if Nelson had sustained the bid for longer, it’s hard to imagine he would’ve had the runway to complete it on his own.
Ryne Nelson remains on closely monitored pitch count
Manager Torey Lovullo said pregame the plan was to keep Nelson in the same range of pitch counts he had faced of late.
“Probably pretty similar to what you’ve seen,” Lovullo said. “You know, we’ve talked about it. We’ve talked about maybe having it climb 5-10 pitches here before the break, but still we’re going to we’re going to live in that same space.
“I want to protect the athlete. He’s throwing the ball extremely well. He feels strong, and that’s the most important thing. So we’ll read and react, but I want to just make sure that I protect him the best way that I know how. And we’ll get there. We’re going to get there.”
Nelson threw between 79-88 pitches in his previous four starts, allowing four earned runs over 22.1 innings.
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