Discussion: Can you have a perfect game by Manfred rules?

Imagine this: You have a pitcher, perhaps good or perhaps lucky, who makes a start, and pitches a nine-inning perfect game.

Or perhaps he is unlucky, because his offense can’t provide any run support. The regulation game ends in a 9-inning, 0-0 tie. That means its time for Manfredball!

As we are all-too-familiar with, Manfredball means a runner placed on second base, through no fault of the pitcher.

Now, to make matters worse, the pitcher gives up two deep, but routine fly balls. The first one advances the Manfred runner to third. The second scores the run. The pitcher then gets the third out to end the inning.

The game then ends with a 1-0 score. Did the pitcher throw a perfect game?

Here is what the official rules have to say about it:

An official perfect game occurs when a pitcher (or pitchers) retires each batter on the opposing team during the entire course of a game, which consists of at least nine innings. In a perfect game, no batter reaches any base during the course of the game.

It looks like the operative words to me are your definition of “retires” and “reaches.”

What say you, Twinkie Town?