A perfect game in the minors is rare enough on its own. Getting one from a 32-year-old journeyman in the middle of a long, winding career makes it even more striking.
That was the scene Monday evening, when Thomas Pannone, pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate Nashville Sounds, retired all 27 Durham Bulls batters in order. It was the first minor league perfect game since 2017, and Pannone did it with just 94 pitches while striking out eight.
The fastball numbers made the outing even more unlikely. Pannone’s heater topped out at 91 miles per hour, yet he kept Durham off balance from start to finish.
After the first 26 hitters were dispatched, he found himself in a 3-0 count against the final batter. Pannone then came back with an 86-mile-per-hour pitch over the plate to extend the at-bat, before getting the hitter to roll over a low fastball and ending the night with a celebration.
For Pannone, the moment capped a career that has taken plenty of turns. He began his minor league career in 2013 and didn’t reach Double-A until 2017. The next year brought his big league debut with the Toronto Blue Jays, where he made 12 appearances, posted a 4.19 ERA and struck out 29 batters in 43 innings.
In 2019, he was a regular in the Blue Jays bullpen, throwing 73 innings and finishing with a 6.16 ERA. After that, he bounced through minor league deals with the Los Angeles Angels and Boston Red Sox before ending up in Milwaukee’s system.
Pannone was strong in his first run with Nashville, good enough to earn a late-season call-up in 2023. In that big league appearance, he allowed five hits, struck out four and gave up two earned runs in 2.2 innings before being sent back down.
The carousel kept spinning in 2024, when he signed with the Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees before landing back with the Brewers before the end of the year. Over the last three seasons, he has been stuck in minor league limbo, with just one appearance in Milwaukee this season.
Still, Pannone said the game’s obsession with velocity doesn’t tell the whole story.
“Around baseball these days, it’s so much about stuff, so much about velo,” Pannone said. “But I kind of proved that it’s really not.
It’s about executing, getting ahead, staying ahead and controlling the counts. If you can change speeds even the littlest bit and command your pitches, I believe that you can have success in this game.
Like, I really, truly believe.”
He also said he’s content to keep pitching wherever the game takes him, even if the next big league opportunity never comes.
“To keep showing up and keep doing it every time I get the ball, every time I get a chance, it’s pretty cool,” Pannone said. “To do this at 32 years old and be able to say I’ve thrown a perfect game, it’s even just crazy to say out loud.”
In Other News...
Brewers Are Still Cashing In On A Trade Nobody Noticed
A trade that barely registered in February has turned into one of the more intriguing baseball deals of the season. The Brewers and Red Sox swapped six players shortly before Spring Training, and every piece involved has already made a Major League impact this year, an unusually strong outcome for a transaction this size in recent MLB history.
For Milwaukee, the deal keeps looking better because Harrison and Hamilton have both provided real value at the big-league level, while Boston has gotten notable production from Durbin. It is the kind of swap that can reshape a roster in quiet ways over time, and it has already become the sort of move front offices will point to when they talk about finding talent others missed. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Are Getting National Credit For What They've Built
The Brewers have spent the better part of the last three seasons turning division titles into something closer to a standard than a surprise, and that consistency is now drawing fresh attention beyond Milwaukee. ESPN recently placed the club second among all organizations in baseball for talent, a nod to the way the front office has stocked both the major league roster and the pipeline behind it.
What makes the ranking notable is not just the current group of contributors but the depth of players spread across the organization, from the big league club to the minors. Of course, talent rankings only tell part of the story, and the real test for Milwaukee is whether that collection of players can keep producing at the level that has made the Brewers a fixture in the NL Central race. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Have A Strange New Weakness They Can't Take Into October
The Brewers have spent much of the 2026 season showing a rare unfamiliarity with Major League Baseballs ABS challenge system, and it has become one of the more curious wrinkles in their profile. Milwaukee has challenged pitches less often than any other team, and when it has gone to the system, the results have not been especially kind. Even in a sport built on small margins, this is a phase of the game the Brewers have struggled to turn into an edge.
What makes it more notable is how the problem has shown up across the roster, not just in one spot. Milwaukees catchers have also posted below-average success with the system, which can matter most in the tight late-game moments when a well-timed challenge can change the shape of an inning. For a club with October ambitions, it is a strange weakness to be carrying into the stretch run, especially one that could keep costing them in the very situations where every call feels magnified. [Read more 🡒]