Sunday’s game between the Cleveland Guardians and the Arizona Diamondbacks sparked another debate over baseball’s unwritten rules.
Guardians pitcher Gavin Williams was twirling a gem through the first five innings at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio, retiring all 15 batters he had faced. But to lead off the sixth inning, Arizona’s Tim Tawa attempted to bunt to break up Williams’ perfect game.
The bunt attempt went foul, but the Guardians were not happy about it. Unfortunately for them however, Tawa singled to right field on the very next pitch to spoil both the perfect game and the no-hitter for Williams.
Three batters later, a heavy rain began to come down onto the field, resulting in a rain delay. As the grounds crew rolled the tarp out, the Dbacks and the Guardians began exchanging some heated words, apparently over Tawa’s bunt attempt several minutes prior.
That then led to a bizarre scene in which both benches cleared in the pouring rain as the tarp was coming out. Here is the video of the full sequence.
Guardians were pissed at the Dbacks after they tried to bunt and end Gavin Williams' perfect game
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 2, 2026
The benches ended up clearing in the pouring rain as the grounds crew tried to get the tarp on the field pic.twitter.com/Yn27HaqCnS
The veteran righty Williams was removed from the game after the rain delay, finishing his afternoon with one hit and one walk allowed plus 10 strikeouts over 5.2 innings pitched. That was enough to earn the victory though as Cleveland held on to defeat Arizona by a final score of 5-0 after the resumption of play.
In the Dbacks’ defense, it was only the sixth inning at the time of Tawa’s bunt attempt, and they were trailing in the game as a team that is right in the thick of the NL Wild Card race at 59-53. But baseball purists obviously do not like the practice of bunting to break up an attempt at history (as was evidenced by, coincidentally, another recent perfect game bid by the Guardians).
