Ryne Nelson’s perfect game bid broken up in 6th inning vs. Royals

PHOENIX — Ryne Nelson carried a perfect game into the sixth inning on Saturday, but it was broken up when Kansas City Royals catcher Freddy Fermin hit a line drive into center off the Arizona Diamondbacks starter.

The crowd of 26,043 at Chase Field for the 7-1 win made their appreciation for the stopper known after the hit, as pitching has been a struggle for the team much of the year.

The 5.1 innings Nelson had completed was the longest a Diamondbacks starter had gone without giving up a hit since Merrill Kelly had a no-hit bid through 5.2 innings on June 5.

Randy Johnson’s perfect game in May 2004 remains the only one in franchise history.

Nelson worked efficiently the first time through the Royals’ order, needing only 30 pitches — 23 of which were strikes — to sit down all nine batters.

That’s when the thought of the perfect game started to creep into his head, Nelson said postgame, because, “to throw a perfect game, you’ve gotta throw the first three (innings) perfect.”

He got four runs worth of support while he sustained the bid for two more innings. Fermin’s hit was the first of three in the sixth for Kansas City, earning the Royals their only run off Nelson.

Nelson exited after completing seven innings (86 pitches), his longest start of the season. He gave up four hits while striking out five. It was also his second straight start without walking any batters.

Ryne Nelson remains on closely monitored pitch count

Even if Nelson had sustained the bid for longer, it’s hard to imagine he would’ve had the runway to complete it on his own. Manager Torey Lovullo nearly said outright postgame he didn’t.

“I had it in my mind. I was panicking. I was sweating,” Lovullo said of how he tracked the bid unfolding. “You know what I was gonna do and I don’t wanna say it out loud, but I gotta do what I gotta do.

“If he was at 90 pitches or less (entering the ninth with the bid intact), he probably would’ve finished the game.”

The manager said he has to be stubborn about protecting his players in those situations, but Nelson was always going to get the seventh inning so he could get deserved appreciation from the crowd afterwards.

Nelson said he felt comfortable even late in the outing and acknowledged the velocity stayed up, so he’s looking to up the pitch count in the near future.

“Just trying to be patient with it and take care of my body, take care of what I need to do in between starts. And hopefully we can start stretching it out a bit more,” Nelson said.

Lovullo said pregame there have been conversations about slight increases before the All-Star break, especially as the team is in the midst of a stretch of 17 games in 17 days, but it will likely remain in the same range.

“Probably pretty similar to what you’ve seen,” Lovullo said. “You know, we’ve talked about it. We’ve talked about maybe having it climb five to 10 pitches here before the break, but still we’re going to live in that same space.”

Nelson threw between 79-88 pitches in his previous four starts, and he now has a 1.53 ERA with 26 strikeouts to six walks in 29.1 innings over his last five games.

Diamondbacks’ defense, patience key to support behind Ryne Nelson

Nelson and Lovullo were quick to credit defensive plays made in the outfield or by Geraldo Perdomo and others in the infield for how Nelson was able to string together clean innings.

Ryne Nelson, who said his perfect game bid was on his mind after getting through the Royals’ order once, credited the defense and catcher James McCann for the success in his start. pic.twitter.com/IzCJcAHfgR

— Arizona Sports (@AZSports) July 6, 2025

Diamondback hitters forced an early exit for Royals starter Michael Wacha after he picked up four walks and a hit-by-pitch.

Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez had back-to-back RBI singles to start the scoring in the third, and Randal Grichuk put the finishing touches on the game with a two-run eighth-inning homer toward the pool.

Lovullo joked Grichuk ran the bases when he didn’t have to, because it appeared the ball may have still been in play.

Randal Grichuk circles the bases on what looked like a stand up inside-the-parker (it hit a chair over the fence) pic.twitter.com/xBInVfD98H

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 5, 2025

Corbin Carroll was 0-for-5 in his return from a fractured wrist but showed the “spirit” Lovullo was looking for out of the star. Carroll also caught the final out to end the game.

Ketel Marte, meanwhile, got the day off because Lovullo said he had earned it and that Marte thanked him for it postgame.

Catch the rubber match between the Diamondbacks and Royals at 1:10 p.m. Sunday on 98.7 or the Arizona Sports app.

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