Baseball Reference via Stathead: imperfect list of perfect games.

I wanted the detailed stats of perfect games, not just a list, such as that in Baseball Almanac:

https://www.baseball-almanac.com/pitching/piperf.shtml

We'll use that as reference.

So I went to https://www.baseball-reference.com/ and clicked on Stathead and ran a query that should provide perfect games, i.e., those in which no batter reaches base. I wanted them for games of at least 9 innings by one pitcher. So I kept the criteria simple:

In years 1901 to 2020, (requiring BR=0, IPouts>=27 and BF>=27), sorted by earliest date

BR: Base Runners

BF: Batters Faced

Here's what Stathead returned, all 9 inning games, which should be 27 up, 27 down:

Rk	Player	Date	Tm	Opp	Rslt	App,Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	UER	Pit	Str	GSc	IR	IS	BF	AB	2B	3B	IBB	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	PO	BK	WP	ERA	WPA	RE24	aLI	DFS(DK)	DFS(FD)
1	Cy Young	1904-05-05	BOS	PHA	W 3-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	8	0	0			95			27	27	0	0		0	0						0	0	0.00
2	Christy Mathewson	1905-06-13	NYG	CHC	W 1-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0			89			28	28	0	0		0	0						0	0	0.00
3	Nap Rucker	1908-09-05 (2)	BRO	BSN	W 6-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	14	0	0			101			29	29	0	0		0	0						0	0	0.00
4	Addie Joss	1908-10-02	CLE	CHW	W 1-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0			90			27	27	0	0		0	0						0	0	0.00
5	Charlie Robertson	1922-04-30	CHW	DET	W 2-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	6	0	0			93			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.633	4.641	.917
6	Jim Bunning	1964-06-21 (1)	PHI	NYM	W 6-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	10	0	0	89	68	97			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.293	3.877	.447
7	Sandy Koufax	1965-09-09	LAD	CHC	W 1-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	14	0	0	113	79	101			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.674	3.749	1.044
8	Catfish Hunter	1968-05-08	OAK	MIN	W 4-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	11	0	0			98			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.489	3.209	.793
9	Len Barker	1981-05-15	CLE	TOR	W 3-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	11	0	0			98			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.474	4.046	.714
10	Mike Witt	1984-09-30	CAL	TEX	W 1-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	10	0	0			97			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.812	4.581	1.181
11	Tom Browning	1988-09-16	CIN	LAD	W 1-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	7	0	0	101	72	94			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.694	4.016	1.050
12	Dennis Martinez	1991-07-28	MON	LAD	W 2-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	5	0	0	96	66	92			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.574	4.037	.866
13	Kenny Rogers	1994-07-28	TEX	CAL	W 4-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	8	0	0	98	64	95			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.359	5.222	.499
14	David Wells	1998-05-17	NYY	MIN	W 4-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	11	0	0	120	79	98			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.477	4.944	.677
15	David Cone	1999-07-18	NYY	MON	W 6-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	10	0	0	88	68	97			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.259	5.202	.363
16	Randy Johnson	2004-05-18	ARI	ATL	W 2-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	13	0	0	117	87	100			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.670	4.721	.964
17	Mark Buehrle	2009-07-23	CHW	TBR	W 5-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	6	0	0	116	76	93			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.290	5.123	.406
18	Dallas Braden	2010-05-09	OAK	TBR	W 4-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	6	0	0	109	77	93			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.339	4.430	.495
19	Roy Halladay	2010-05-29	PHI	FLA	W 1-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	11	0	0	115	72	98			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.838	4.520	1.224
20	Philip Humber	2012-04-21	CHW	SEA	W 4-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	9	0	0	96	67	96			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.399	4.097	.600
21	Matt Cain	2012-06-13	SFG	HOU	W 10-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	14	0	0	125	86	101			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.124	3.808	.189
22	Felix Hernandez	2012-08-15	SEA	TBR	W 1-0	SHO, W	9.0	0	0	0	0	12	0	0	113	77	99			27	27	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.712	4.097	1.071

Games 2 and 3 by Mathewson and Rucker are NOT on the list of perfect games at Baseball Almanac. Stathead contains obvious discrepancies:

Batters Faced and At Bats, instead of 27 and 27 (each batting position should have 3 at bats):

Mathewson: 28 and 28

Rucker: 29 and 29

What the heck? Let's look at the games in baseball-reference.com.

New York Giants at Chicago Cubs Box Score, June 13, 1905

Giants 1, Cubs 0 (No play by play.)

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc
Christy Mathewson, W (9-3)	9	0	0	0	0	2	0	0.00	28	89

Cubs:

Batting	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	PA	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	PO	A	Details
Jimmy Slagle CF	4	0	0	0	0	0	4	.281	.413	.303	.716	3	0
Frank Schulte LF	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	.256	.314	.346	.660	1	0	SB

Slagle batted four times and Schulte stole a base.

Team LOB: 1.

Baserunning

SB: Frank Schulte (9).

Giants:

E: Billy Gilbert (17); Bill Dahlen (19).

Gilbert 2B, Dahlen SS

Two errors. This does not necessarily mean that the errors resulted in a batter reaching base but the LOB (Left On Base) and SB (Stolen Base) do.

__________________

Boston Doves at Brooklyn Superbas Box Score, September 5, 1908

Brooklyn 6, Boston 0 (No play by play.)

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc
Nap Rucker, W (15-14)	9	0	0	0	0	14	0	0.00	29	101

Boston:

Batting	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	PA	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	PO	A	Details
George Browne RF	3	0	0	0	0	2	3	.235	.285	.280	.565	0	0
Frank Bowerman PH	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	.244	.278	.300	.578
Johnny Bates LF	3	0	0	0	0	2	3	.261	.323	.323	.645	3	1
Harry Smith PH	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	.267	.313	.352	.665

Including the pinch hitters, the first two spots in the Boston batting order had four at bats each.

Team LOB: 2.

Brooklyn:

DP: 1. Nap Rucker-Tim Jordan.

E: Phil Lewis (35); Harry Lumley (6); Tommy Sheehan (26).

__________________

It appears that at least for games without play by play, Stathead did not consider reaching base on an error when figuring the number of Base Runners (BR).

As mentioned previously, an error does not necessarily mean that a batter reached base. Consider the second of two no-hitters (neither a perfect game) in 1951 by Allie Reynolds:

New York Yankees at Cleveland Indians Box Score, July 12, 1951

Yankees 1, Indians 0

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	RE24
Allie Reynolds, W (10-5)	9	0	0	0	3	4	0	3.33	29	88			0.792	1.37	4.4

Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees Box Score, September 28, 1951

Yankees 8, Red Sox 0

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	RE24
Allie Reynolds, W (17-8)	9	0	0	0	4	9	0	3.05	30	92			0.234	0.35	4.5

9th inning two out, runner on first, Ted Williams batting:

E2 on Foul Ball

Foul Popfly: C

Hall of Fame Yankee catcher Yogi Berra dropped Williams foul ball for an error. Williams then hit another foul pop and Yogi caught this one and Reynolds had his no-hitter.