Dallas Braden pitched the 19th perfect game in major league history on Sunday, shutting down the majors’ hottest team and leading the Oakland Athletics to a 4-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

The closest the Rays got to a hit was Jason Bartlett’s liner to third leading off the game. Evan Longoria tried to bunt leading off the fifth, drawing boos from the small crowd.

This was the majors’ first perfect game since Mark Buehrle did it for the White Sox against the Rays on July 23, and the second no-hitter this season after Colorado‘s Ubaldo Jimenez accomplished it in Atlanta on April 17.

Braden pitched the A’s first perfect game since Catfish Hunter’s gem on May 8, 1968, against the Minnesota Twins. Only 6,298 were there to witness it. Sunday’s crowd at the Coliseum wasn’t much better: 12,228.

Braden threw his arms in the air and pointed to the sky in honor of his single mom, Jodie Atwood, who died of skin cancer when he was a high school senior. He shared a long and tearful hug with his grandmother Peggy Lindsey, who helped raise him, in front of the dugout.

What a difference a year makes. Last Mother’s Day, Braden was hit by a line drive by Vernon Wells.

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