Almost on the Mark

It looks like Mark Buehrle likes extra days of rest. He liked it so much that he almost threw a perfect game tonight against the Tigers as the White Sox blanked Detroit 6-0. Buehrle went 8 innings, gave up only one hit, a double to Placido Polanco in the 7th inning, walked 2, and struck out 5 to earn his fifth victory of the season. The White Sox scored early and often as 5 men came across in the first inning off of Armando Galarraga, all of which came with two outs. Pierzynski and Nix both homered while Konerko recorded a two hit game with two RBI.

What can I say? Buehrle dazzled tonight. He had a perfect game going through the first 6.1 innings until Placido Polanco doubled to left in the 7th with one out. Buehrle then went on to load the bases in the same inning, but got out of it by getting Gerald Laird on a fly ball to Scott Podsednik. Buehrle would then go on to retire the side in order in the 8th. He threw 110 pitches tonight in 8 innings and could have easily pitched in the 9th had there been a no hitter in line. Jenks got some much needed work in the 9th inning. He would not allow a run, but the Tigers got a runner to third base. Unfortunately, Buehrle could not finish off Polanco in that 7th inning even though he was ahead in the count 0-2. The most important thing tonight was not Buehrle's near perfect game, but rather that the White Sox won. They haven't won since Buehrle's last start.

Offensively, the Sox scored early. What was encoraging is that they did the scoring with 2 outs. Jermaine Dye singled in the first run with a liner to left in the first, scoring Chris Getz. Paul Konerko then doubled down the right field line, scoring both Thome and Dye. A.J. Pierznyski then launched a two run home run, his fourth of the season to cap off the 5 run first. Jayson Nix added an extra run in the 4th with his first career home run. Nix, who was playing for the struggling Alexei Ramirez at SS, is now hitting .400 in limited at bats and has looked very good defensively. It looks like the White Sox have themselves a nice new backup infielder. Carlos Quentin continued to struggle. After going 3-5 in Wedensday's 11 inning marathon against Kansas City, Quentin went 0-4 today as he left 3 runners on base. The 2008 all-star is now only hitting .242. Josh Fields is also struggling. After his hot start, he is now hitting .250 and struck out twice today. Ozzie might have to do some lineup flipping. Fields not getting contact is a huge concern in the 2-hole. Maybe they should put Nix there until Alexei figures it out again. The White Sox only had 6 hits, but they got 6 runs, which was very nice to see. The team capitalized on every oppurtunity they had today, which is very encouraging.

Like I said earlier, the most important thing to come out of this game was the win, not the fact that Buehrle almost had a no-hitter. The White Sox needed this badly. At 13-14, they're in 3rd place in the AL Central, 4 games back of the 17-11 Royals. They'll face the Rangers tomorrow. It'll be Matt Harrison vs. Jose Contreras. Contreras is on the hotseat right now as he is 0-4 on the season. He has only pitched well in one game and has been abysmal in the rest.

- Stan (White Sox writer)