Guardians Baseball Insider

July 26, 2011 Columbus Clippers

You may remember Justin Germano from his 32 appearances with the Indians in the big leagues between 2010 and 2011 or potentially from his time in the Korean, Japanese and Italian Major Leagues, but arguably the best thing he did in his career happened in AAA.

The started turned reliever turned starter began his MiLB career in 2000 when he was drafted by the Padres out of high school in the 13th round, then made his big league debut just four years later with San Diego. He wasn’t particularly effective as a starter that year and was traded to Cincinnati in 2005, then to Philadelphia the next year before being put on waivers and rejoining the Padres. After becoming a free agent, Germano joined the Indians for two lackluster seasons in the bullpen.

He pitched his final MLB game of 2011 in May, then finished out the year in Columbus. Things weren’t going particularly well there either, until his second to last start of the year on July 26th.

The Clippers got off to a strong start as Tim Fedroff doubled to start the game and came home after a Cord Phelps double. They added two more in the second thanks to a Chad Huffman walk, Paul Phillips single and Fedroff triple. While the Clippers would end up with 11 hits, neither team would score again.

From there out is was the Germano show. He notched his first K in the third with two more coming in the fourth. He added four more before the end of the game for seven total, his most in any 2011 game between AAA and MLB. More importantly, he didn’t walk a Syracuse hitter or allow a hit through all nine for the first perfect game in the history of the Columbus Clippers (and the 6th no hitter).

What really makes this feat incredible is that in his previous appearance he allowed 12 hits and hit a batter in his previous start and 11 hits along with another hit batter in his following start, his last of 2011. Following his time with the Indians, Germano joined the Samsung Lions in the KBO, then signed with the Red Sox, was sold to the Cubs, signed as a free agent with the Blue Jays, then the Rangers and was traded to the Dodgers. After another season in the KBO with the KT Wiz, he signed with Seattle before finishing his career with T&A San Marino of the Italian Baseball League. Through it all, he pitched 17 seasons accruing 2,339.2 innings with a 4.05 ERA, but nothing was quite like this date back in 2011 with the Columbus Clippers.