Dallas Braden Is Perfect...

The Oakland A's Dallas Braden pitched the 19th perfect game in major league history- shutting down Tampa Bay 4-0.

Gabe Kapler grounded out to shortstop for the final out- the first perfect game for Oakland in 42 years ((Catfish Hunter)).

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's without a doubt a team effort," Braden said. "You got eight guys out there chasing balls and knocking balls down for me. So this is ours, not just mine, this is ours. ... It's just a tremendous feeling for the team, for everybody, for the organization. It's been a while since we've had something like that happen around here. It's never happened to me, that's for sure."

Just ask his grandmother...
Kate Longworth caught up with her knee-deep in the hoopla...
((HT: CSNCalifornia))


Whaddya think Alex Rodriguez will do when these two teams hook up again...???

"Get Off My Mound..." Braden to A-Rod

((HT: Traina))

The HQ heard about this driving from the Nationwide tournament in Valdosta yesterday.

The Oakland A's Dallas Braden didn't like A-Rod returning to first by running across "his mound." Is the pitcher's mound sacred territory...???

Dunno, but to Braden it is... here's the reaction from afterwards...

"He's a tremendous player and a tremendous talent, and I don't care if I'm Cy Young or the 25th man on a roster; if I've got the ball in my hand and I'm out there on that mound, that's not your mound. You want to run across the mound? Go run laps in the bullpen. That's my mound."

Rodriguez responded by saying, "He just told me to get off his mound. That was a little surprising. I've never quite heard that -- especially from a guy that has a handful of wins in his career."

A-Rod with the burn... haven't heard those since high-school...
Here's the play...
Thanks to MLB Network/CSNBA/baseballjeremiad