Starting in December and ending on Opening Day, Joe Posnanski will count down the 100 greatest baseball players by publishing an essay on a player every day for 100 days. In all, this project will contain roughly as many words as “Moby Dick.” Yes, we know it’s nutty. We hope you enjoy.



In 2015, Max Scherzer pitched three of the greatest baseball games ever pitched.



On June 14, facing Milwaukee, he threw a complete-game one-hitter where he struck out 16 Brewers. The hit he allowed was a Carlos Gómez bloop single to right field in the seventh inning, just inches beyond the reach of Anthony Rendon, who was playing second base at the time. Scherzer had a perfect game going at the time and the hit was so flimsy and unsatisfying that even Gómez himself wasn’t thrilled about it.



“I got lucky,” Gómez told The Washington Post. “I don’t enjoy it. I would enjoy it if I hit a real base hit.