Thomas Pannone needed just 94 pitches to do something no minor league pitcher had done alone in nine innings since 2017: retire all 27 batters he faced. The 32-year-old left-hander struck out eight and walked no one as the Nashville Sounds beat the Durham Bulls 3-0 Monday night, capping the outing with a tense full count before a game-ending groundout preserved the perfect game in the bottom of the ninth.
According to WFRV Local 5, Pannone's gem was the third perfect game in Nashville Sounds franchise history, following outings by John Wasdin in 2003 and Manny Parra in 2007, according to MiLB.com. The Sounds, Milwaukee's Triple-A affiliate since 2021, improved to 77-61 on the season and sit second in the International League West, with a 34-29 mark in the second half, per WFRV's report.
What made the performance especially striking wasn't just its rarity but how it was achieved. Per Sports Illustrated, Pannone completed all 27 outs without throwing a single pitch faster than 91.2 mph, a stark contrast to a Triple-A landscape where fastballs routinely top 95 mph. The outlet notes the feat leaned on soft contact and precise control rather than power in an era built around velocity.
A Feat Minor League Baseball Rarely Sees Anymore
The last time a single pitcher threw a nine-inning perfect game anywhere in Minor League Baseball was April 25, 2017, when Dominic Mazza accomplished it, Sports Illustrated reports. Modern pitcher workload management and heavy bullpen usage have made solo complete games of any kind increasingly uncommon, let alone perfect ones.
The outing also carries historic weight within the International League itself. Founded in 1884, the league has now seen only five solo nine-inning perfect games in its 142-year history, according to OutKick. The station's report also detailed the final sequence of the night: facing the 27th batter, Pannone fell behind 3-0 before firing consecutive strikes and inducing a game-ending groundout, a sequence in which a single misplaced pitch would have ended the perfect game bid while still leaving a no-hitter intact.
A Journeyman's Long Road Back to the Spotlight
Pannone is a 12-year minor league veteran who was drafted by Cleveland in the ninth round of the 2013 MLB Draft and has since pitched in seven different Major League organizations, per the same account from Sports Illustrated. He also spent two seasons pitching for the KIA Tigers in South Korea's KBO League, posting a 3.49 ERA over 30 appearances in 2022 and 2023.
His history of flirting with pitching milestones dates back to his time with the Toronto Blue Jays. During a 49-game run with Toronto from 2018 to 2019, Pannone threw a nine-pitch immaculate inning against Tampa Bay and carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning of his big-league rotation debut, OutKick notes.
This season, Pannone made his way back to the majors for a spot start with Milwaukee. His July 29, 2026 start against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park marked his first Major League appearance in three years, according to the Wisconsin State Journal, after he had spent most of 2024 through 2026 in Triple-A. He pitched three innings in that outing, striking out two, walking two, and allowing three runs on three hits before Milwaukee returned him to Nashville; the Brewers went on to lose that game 16-3.
Where the Perfect Game Fits Into His Season
The perfect game pushed Pannone's season record to 5-3 and gave him 82 strikeouts through 20 starts, numbers that now rank him third on the Sounds in strikeouts this year. He carries a 4.23 ERA, a 1.22 WHIP, and a .246 opponent batting average through those 20 starts. Pannone threw the perfect game on the road at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in North Carolina, a venue widely regarded as one of the sport's premier minor league ballparks, according to CHOSUNBIZ.
With MLB rosters expanded for the season's final stretch, the question now hanging over Nashville is whether a 32-year-old journeyman who just authored one of the rarest pitching performances in International League history will get another look from Milwaukee before the year is out.
