Dallas Braden pitched the Athletics' first perfect game in 42 years and just the 19th in major league history today, dazzling the majors' hottest team in recording a 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in Oakland. Braden threw his arms in the air after Gabe Kapler grounded out to shortstop for the final out. The closest the Rays got to a hit was Jason Bartlett's liner to third leading off the game. Evan Longoria tried to bunt against Braden leading off the fifth, drawing boos from the small crowd.
It was the majors' first perfect game since Mark Buehrle's for the White Sox against the Rays on July 23, and the second no-hitter this season after Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez pulled it off against the Braves in Atlanta on April 17. Braden pitched the team's second perfect game; the first was by Hall of Famer Jim "Catfish" Hunter's on May 8, 1968, against the Minnesota Twins. Only 6,298 were there to witness it. Today's crowd at the Coliseum wasn't much better: 12,228.
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