20, 2008. Mussina is the first pitcher to retire following a 20-victory season since Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax in 1966. Near-perfect games Mussina pitched several near-perfect games throughout his career: On July 17, 1992, he retired the first 12 Texas Rangers before surrendering a double to Kevin Reimer. Mussina retired the final 15 batters he faced for a one-hit 8–0 shutout. On May 30, 1997, he retired the first 25 Cleveland Indians before surrendering a single to Sandy Alomar Jr. with one out in the ninth. Mussina struck out the last two batters for a one-hit 3–0 shutout. On August 4, 1998, he retired the first 23 Detroit Tigers he faced before surrendering a double to Frank Catalanotto with two outs in the eighth. Mussina gave up another hit in the eventual two hit 4–0 shutout. On August 1, 2000, he tossed a one-hitter against the Minnesota Twins. On September 2, 2001, he retired the first 26 Boston Red Sox he faced; he then ran pinch-hitter Carl Everett (batting for Joe Oliver) to a 1-and-2 count before Everett blooped a single to left-center. Mussina then retired leadoff man Trot Nixon on a grounder, striking out 13 batters in a one-hit 1–0 shutout. The losing pitcher was David Cone—the pitcher of the last perfect game at the time, on July 18, 1999. Although Mussina did not achieve perfection, James Buckley Jr. considered it special enough to include an appendix chapter about it in his 2002 book Perfect: The Inside Story of Baseball's Sixteen Perfect Games. Other career achievements Seven-time Gold Glove award winner Placed in the top five of voting for the Cy Young Award six times 1994 Baseball America First-Team American League All-Star starting pitcher 1999 Baseball America Second-Team American League All-Star starting pitcher Led AL in win–loss percentage (.783) in 1992 Led AL in wins (19), walks/9IP (2.03) and shutouts (4) in 1995 Led AL in games started (36) in 1996 Led AL in innings () in 2000 Reached the 2001 and 2003 World Series with the New York Yankees Won 15 games in a season 11 times One 20-win season (), two 19-win seasons, three 18-win seasons, and two 17-win seasons Postseason performance Mussina collected an overall 7–8 record and 3.42 ERA, with 145 strikeouts in 23 career postseason games. His finest postseason occurred in 1997 for the Orioles, when in four games he went 2–0 with