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25 Jul 2009 |
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| When you think of the type of pitchers who throw no-hitters, what do you think of? Over-powering stuff, big fastballs, and nasty sliders, right? That is why it was somewhat of a surprise to see Mark Buehrle throw a no-hitter on April 18, 2007. To think that the contact pitcher could do it again, let alone throw a perfect game was simply amazing.
Thursday July 23, 2009 was certainly a strange day. My job is to drive in a truck all day long. I usually listen to sports talk radio for most of the day or to the Cubs when they are on. With the Cubs having the day off, I decided to tune into the White Sox game. I'm glad I did. It felt strange listening to the Sox game, not that I have never listened to their games before. But for some reason it just felt strange on Thursday. I listened from beginning to end and felt odd about the whole situation. For some reason I had an urge to listen to that game and was able to listen to baseball history. Mark Buehrle absolutely dominated the Tampa Bay Rays in front of a frenzied home field crowd to pitch the eighteenth perfect game in baseball history. He also became the only pitcher in modern history to have two no-hitters in which he faced the minimum amount of hitters. In Buehrle's first no-hitter, the only baserunner came on a walk to Sammy Sosa who he promptly picked-off at first base. Missing from the game was Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski who was given the day off against the lefty Scott Kazmir. Thursday marked the first time that new White Sox catcher Ramon Castro and Mark Buehrle worked together. When joking before the game, Buehrle said to Pierzynski that he doesn't finish games anymore. Pierzynski then told him, "Well, go throw a no-hitter". Buehrle replied, "I already got one of those". Pierzynski's response was, "Then go throw a perfect game". Uncanny. One of the stranger oddities from Thursday's game was that Eric Cooper, the umpire who was behind the plate for Buehrle's perfect game, was also the same umpire who called Buehrle's no-hitter in '07. Cooper, like Buehrle, wears the number 56. Josh Fields gave Buehrle an early lead with a grand slam in the second inning. Buehrle was also given big run support in his '07 no-hitter when Jermaine Dye hit a grand slam. Fields' slam was the first slam ever hit in a perfect game. It nearly wasn't a perfect game when a shot off of the bat of Gabe Kapler to lead off the top of the ninth was ticketed for the first row in left-center field. But ninth-inning defensive replacement DeWayne Wise made arguably the best catch ever, given the situation, to save a no-hitter when he climbed the wall to take a home run away from Kapler. Wise was a member of the Atlanta Braves when baseball's last perfect game was thrown against those Braves by Randy Johnson. When pitchers have a no-hitter going, the tradition is for his teammates to leave him alone between innings. You often see the pitcher sitting on one end of the bench with no one in his vicinity. That wasn't the case for Buehrle. Buehrle was seen laughing and joking with teammates while in the dugout. If Buehrle wasn't frightened by a jinx, Pierzynski certainly wasn't. Before Buehrle took the field in the ninth inning, Pierzynski said, "Come on man, three more outs". The Rays showed their classiness as many of them stuck around after the Sox celebration to give Buehrle a round of applause and tip their caps to him. Buehrle credited them after the game. Buehrle's perfect game was against the highest scoring opponent to ever be no-hit. He accomplished it in typical Mark Buehrle fashion as well...quickly. He finished off the Rays in 2 hrs 3 min., the same amount of time it took him to finish off the Rangers in '07. Mark Buehrle etched his name into the baseball history books as one of the very few to ever throw a perfect game and one of the few to have thrown two no-hitters. His place in baseball history has yet to determined. As Sox pitching coach Don Cooper said, "That picture has yet to be painted". However, Buehrle has cemented himself as a Chicago legend. He has a World Series ring, a no-hitter, and now a perfect game. At age 30, we can hope he gets another one. Trackback(0)
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Tags: Mark Buehrle perfect game no-hitter Chicago White Sox Tampa Bay Rays A.J. Pierzynski Texas Rangers
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He joins 5 other pitchers who have previously pitched at least 2 no-hitters with one of them being a perfect game. They were Eddie Joss, Cy Young, Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax and Randy Johnson.
Finally they became the third franchise in baseball history to have 2 pitchers who have pitched perfect games in their history, the other two were the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians.
Great game, great guy, and great team to do it with.