Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Drew Rasmussen was just three outs away from being immortalized in MLB history. During his outing against the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday, Rasmussen managed to throw eight perfect innings before seeing his coveted perfect game broken by the first batter in the top of the ninth frame. The right-hander was automatic throughout the game, working through one of the most efficient eight innings of all time, needing just 79 pitches to retire the first 24 batters he faced in order.

It was a heartbreaking hit to give up just three outs shy of throwing MLB's 24th-ever perfect game, and all of baseball Twitter shared in Rasmussen's pain after Jorge Mateo managed to lace a double to left field at the start of the final frame.

Baseball Twitter was quick to point the finger at Bob Nightengale after Rasmussen missed out on making history. As he often does, Nightengale couldn't help but tweet about the perfect game during the eighth inning, prompting fans to tell him that he'd jinxed Rasmussen. Low and behold, the perfect game was broken up shortly after.

A tale as old as time, really.

Even ESPN's Jeff Passan joined in on the anti-Nightengale sentiment.

Sorry, Drew. There won't be a perfect game so long as Nightengale is watching.

The last perfect game in MLB history was thrown by Felix Hernandez, who is probably smiling knowing he is still the last pitcher to achieve the absurd feat.

Speaking of that perfect game, it was almost 10 years ago to the day when Hernandez threw his gem on August 15, 2012.

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That would have been a crazy coincidence had Rasmussen finished the job.

So, what do you call Rasmussen's eight innings of perfection, followed by an unfortunate start to the ninth that saw his perfect game, no-hitter, and shutout broken up in the span of a couple of batters? It's not quite a perfect game, but it's close.

A very good game, indeed.

Rasmussen will be fuming that he missed his chance to leave his mark on MLB history. He needed just three more outs to become MLB's 24th perfect pitcher in history but came up just short.