The constraint in pitching efficiency is pitch count: a starter who throws fewer pitches per out stays on the mound longer and keeps the bullpen resting. Thomas Pannone, a 32-year-old left-hander for the Triple-A Nashville Sounds, made that case Monday night, retiring all 27 Durham Bulls batters he faced on just 94 pitches in a 3-0 win. The outing was a perfect game, the first nine-inning, single-pitcher effort across Minor League Baseball since 2017.
Pannone's final line: nine innings, zero hits, zero walks, eight strikeouts. That makes him one of only five pitchers to throw a solo perfect game in the 142-year history of the International League, a circuit that dates to 1884.
The raw efficiency number separates this from a strong conventional start. Ninety-four pitches for 27 outs is a cadence most starting pitchers cannot sustain past the sixth. Pannone worked without a baserunner all night, which eliminates one of the main inefficiency drivers in modern pitching: the stretch. A pitcher who never has to hold a runner can operate exclusively from the windup. Clean frames compound, and by the ninth, the pitch count was not the problem.
It almost became one. Pannone fell behind 3-0 on the 27th and final batter, a single ball away from issuing the walk that would have ended the perfect game. He answered with consecutive strikes and retired the hitter.
Monday's game sits alongside earlier Pannone performances that trace the same command signature. During 49 games with the Toronto Blue Jays from 2018 to 2019, he carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning of his major league debut against Baltimore. In 2019, he threw an immaculate inning against Tampa Bay, striking out the side on nine consecutive pitches. Three pitches per out.
After 2020, Pannone worked through the Cubs, Angels, and Yankees minor league organizations before a stint in the Korean Baseball Organization. The Milwaukee Brewers, whose Triple-A affiliate is the Nashville Sounds, gave him a spot start earlier this summer. It was his first major league appearance in three years.