New standard of perfection

With his 125-pitch gem against the Astros on Wednesday night, Matt Cain entered the history books, throwing the 20th perfect game since 1900 and 22nd in major league history.

Cain struck out 14 in the contest, matching Sandy Koufax?s total on Sept. 9, 1965 for the highest strikeout total in a perfect game.

That gave him a game score of 101, which is tied for the second highest in major league history for a pitcher in a nine-inning game. Of course, Koufax, who had the same line, matched him there, as did Nolan Ryan in his 16-strikeout no-hitter in 1991. The top game score in a nine-inning game is 105, from Kerry Wood?s 20-strikeout, one-hitter against the Astros in 1998.

Making Cain?s feat more impressive:

- The Giants exploded for 10 runs in the game, resulting in some lengthy waits for Cain in the third and fourth innings.

- The wind was blowing out at AT&T Park for the second night in a row. The Giants had gone 16 straight home games without a homer before hitting two on Tuesday night. Tonight, they hit three homers. The Astros wouldn?t have necessarily needed to get all of one to ruin the perfect game and the shutout bid in one swing. Chris Snyder almost spoiled things in the sixth, only to come up a bit short.

- He got to face opposing pitcher J.A. Happ just once, and position players accounted for 26 of the Astros? 27 plate appearances tonight. While the Astros aren?t exactly known for having a high-powered offense, they entered the night ranked eighth in runs scored in the NL.

Cain?s perfect game was the first in the Giants? long history. The 14 strikeouts was a new career high for him.

?I can?t thank [catcher] Buster [Posey] enough,? Cain told MLB.com?s Chris Haft. ?I didn?t even question him once. What he was calling, I was going to throw whatever he wanted and I was going to let him go. Buster did an unbelievable job back there. That was tremendous.?

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