Tampa Bay Manager Joe Maddon is on wrong side of history ... again

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If it’s a perfect game you’d like to witness, you might want to hang around Tampa Bay Rays Manager Joe Maddon (pictured at left) for a while.

Athletics left-hander Dallas Braden threw the 19th perfect game in baseball history when he shut down Maddon’s Rays in Oakland on Sunday.

The last pitcher to throw a perfect game was Chicago White Sox left-hander Mark Buehrle, who shut down -- you guessed it -- Maddon’s Rays last July 23 in U.S. Cellular Field.

Maddon was also the Angels’ bullpen coach in 1994 when Texas left-hander Kenny Rogers threw a perfect game against the Angels on July 28 of that year.

So, if you’re scoring at home, that’s three times Maddon has been in the stadium, in an opposing uniform, for a perfect game.

‘I’m your guy for a perfect game,’ Maddon joked Monday in Angel Stadium, where the Rays were set to begin a three-game series against the Angels. ‘I’m on the bad side of history once again. It’s kind of amazing, but it happened.’

Looking back at how the Rays were hitting going into the weekend, maybe it isn’t so amazing.

‘We were expanding the zone more than normally, and our energy was down a bit,’ Maddon said. ‘It was like the imperfect storm.’

--Mike DiGiovanna

Phot credit: John G. Mabanglo / EPA