van Meel Is Pitcher Perfect
One of the rarest feats in baseball occurred at Arlington Park: the perfect game.

Facing off against the <Idaho Steelheads:team#92>, <Texas Spurs:team#73> hurler <Christiaan van Meel:player#9094> gave up no runs, no hits, no walks and saw no errors in the 3-0 victory.

"This was one of those games where a good athlete was on top of his game," said Texas manager Matt Yordy after the game. "He had a tremendous rhythm out there. His focus, his concentration, his stuff, everything was as good as it could possibly be."

van Meel saw 27 batters and retired every one of them in order. He bewildered the Steelheads, striking out 9.

Late in the game, the left-hander sat by himself at one end of the dugout, staring at the ground. No one approached him, adhering to the baseball superstition that no one mention a no-hitter -- much less a perfect game -- until it is completed. When it was over, van Meel gave a simple fist pump, while his teammates mobbed him and the fans gave a standing ovation.

"A game like this was pretty special," van Meel said. "It doesn't come along very often."

This year <van Meel:player#9094> has registered 11 wins and 11 losses in 30 starts with a 4.04 ERA while registering 143 strikeouts and 18 walks in 200.1 innings.

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