Mark Buehrle Tosses No-Hitter as White Sox Blank Texas Rangers
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Chicago White Sox lefthander Mark Buehrle pitched a no-hitter facing the minimum 27 batters while giving up but one walk, to Texas Rangers rightfielder Sammy Sosa enroute to a 6-0 shutout.
After walking Sosa, Buehrle promptly picked him off first base.
Yahoo sports’ AP report provides game highlights;
“I can’t believe I did it,” Buehrle said. “Perfect game would have been nice, too.”
Buehrle stayed calm all night. Bucking baseball tradition, he joked with teammates and even went to the clubhouse to watch some TV and chat with catcher A.J. Pierzynski.
Then came the ninth inning. With the crowd on its feet, Buehrle struck out Matt Kata and Nelson Cruz before Gerald Laird hit a slow grounder to third base that Joe Crede picked up and threw to first. As Paul Konerko caught the ball, he pumped his fist, setting off a wild celebration.
“Obviously, never in a million years thought I’d be able to have this happen,” Buehrle said. “I don’t know if it’s really sunk in yet.”
Buehrle was mobbed by teammates at the side of the mound. He got a big hug from manager Ozzie Guillen as he came off the field.
“I told Mark right after the game I’ve been nervous, but never like that in the World Series or playoffs or whatever,” Pierzynski said. “When he got to ninth inning and two outs I was a lot more nervous than I was in the World Series. I don’t want to say there was more on the line, but for a personal accomplishment that’s about as good as it gets.”
Buehrle said his teammates tried to avoid him on the bench as the game progressed, determined not to jinx him. But he went up to a couple of players in the dugout around the fifth inning and said, “You know I got a no-hitter going.”
“People try to jinx and I was trying to jinx on myself,” Buehrle said.
On a chilly, 40-degree night, Buehrle threw 105 pitches and struck out eight in a game that took just 2 hours, 3 minutes. His previous low-hit game was a one-hitter against Tampa Bay on Aug. 3, 2001. It was the 16th no-hitter in White Sox history and first since Wilson Alvarez threw one at Baltimore on Aug. 11, 1991.
To pitch a no-hitter, a pitcher needs extraordinary stuff and for everything to go right, including defensive support. I recall Jim Bunning’s Father’s Day perfect game in 1964 which would not have happened had it not been for 2nd baseman Tony Taylor’s stab of a hard line drive. Buehrle got that kind of defensive support on a number of occasions in this one.
Opposing pitcher Kevin Millwood lasted 5 innings having fiven up 5 of the 6 White Sox runs; a solo shot by dh Jim Thome in the 2nd inning and a grand slam homer by Jermaine Dye in the 5th inning. Millwood’s line was 5 runs, 5 hits, 4 walks, 3 strikeouts and the 2 homers. Thome added another solo shot for good measure in the 7th inning off of Rangers reliever Joaquin Benoit.
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