Bartolo Colon had a phenomenal outing on the mound and the baseball world was loving it

(Bob Levey)

By Jessica Kleinschmidt

April 16, 2018

Bartolo Colon put on a fabulous display atop the mound in the Rangers' 3-1 win over the Astros on Sunday night. He cruised into seven perfect innings, but that perfection ceased to be after a lead-off walk by Carlos Correa and a Josh Reddick double.
Despite the somewhat unhappy ending, the baseball world and adoring fans were filled to the brim with excitement with what they were witnessing.
As the innings flew by, we weren't sure how Colon was handling the pressure. Well:

BART IS SO RELAXED LOL pic.twitter.com/zqrKLOf5Ji
— Cespedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) April 16, 2018

Or this could explain it:

A quick explanation for how Bartolo Colon is doing this. pic.twitter.com/kVmE7n5hGG
— Pitcher List (@PitcherList) April 16, 2018

He even got respect from former players who faced him:

That was fun.
Faced Bart in ‘02 on cold CLE night and he basically sat 100 all game. Throws one 99 in top 8 and somebody at end of bench says, “Time to get him, boys. He’s slowing down.” It’s a trip to see this version of him.
— Michael Young (@MikeyY626) April 16, 2018

And those who were Dan Haren:

I threw 88 with 1000% effort.
— dan haren (@ithrow88) April 16, 2018

And when it was over, there was nothing but respect from Bartolo:

Very cool by Bartolo Colon: Gives a wave on his way off the mound to Josh Reddick, who broke up the no-hitter.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) April 16, 2018

When both boys have a balloon. pic.twitter.com/qFu4pqpjBt
— Sung Min Kim (@sung_minkim) April 16, 2018

What a night, #BigSexy! pic.twitter.com/xoUOD82JpM
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) April 16, 2018

With some fun facts:

Colon, at 44 years, 326 days, is oldest pitcher to ever carry a no-hitter to 8th inning. No pitcher at this age has gone more than 7 innings and allowed 1 hit.
— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) April 16, 2018

And yes, it was a perfect game in its own way: