A’s Mulder Flirts With Perfection

In 1,195 major league games, Mark Grace said he had never seen anything like the stuff 23-year-old Mark Mulder was throwing Friday night.

The 6-foot-6 left-hander was so good, he was almost perfect in the Oakland Athletics’ 3-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Only Danny Bautista’s leadoff single in the eighth inning spoiled an otherwise flawless performance.

“That’s the best game I’ve ever had thrown against me,” Grace said. “I’ve never been on a team that’s been no-hit. That was awesome. He had all his pitches working, hitting every spot he needed to hit. I don’t know how Danny did it.”

Bautista, whose clean hit over shortstop Miguel Tejada came on Mulder’s second pitch in the eighth, was the only Arizona batter to reach base. Only three Diamondbacks managed to get the ball into the outfield.

Mulder (9-6), the second pick in the 1998 draft, baffled the Diamondbacks with amazing control. Not only did he fail to walk anyone, he never got more than two balls on any batter.

“I don’t mean to demean anybody else we faced this year, but I don’t remember anybody being as good as Mr. Mulder was tonight,” Arizona Manager Bob Brenly said.

Arizona starter Brian Anderson, who allowed only an infield single in the first six innings, was robbed of a hit in the third by second baseman Frank Menechino, who made a diving stop and threw the runner out.

Oakland scored all three runs off Anderson (2-4) in the seventh. Menechino became the first batter in the game to reach second base when he led off with a double to the center-field wall.

Menechino scored on Ron Gant’s one-out triple. Tejada followed with a single to drive in Gant and later scored on Eric Chavez’s sacrifice fly.