Flirting With Perfection

Story Line: White Sox hurler Mark Buehrle tosses eight innings of one-hit, shutout baseball against the Detroit Tigers. Mark retired the first 19 Tiger batters before Placido Polanco took a 0-2 offering from Buehrle down the left field line for a double in the seventh inning. Following Polanco's double, Buehrle walked the next two batters to load up the bases. Mark went on to retire the next Tigers batter and get an inning ending fly out to center field. Bobby Jenks came into a non-save situation in the ninth and surrendered back-to-back singles to start the inning. He went on to retire the next three batters, including striking out former Sox right fielder Magglio Ordonez to end the game.

What Buehrle had to say: "I feel so lucky. It's an honor to pitch in the major leagues. It's a kid's game and I try to have as much fun as I can, win or lose. A lot of people would love to be doing what I'm doing, and I appreciate every minute of it."

Overheard by Tigers manager Jim Leyland: "In, out, cut the ball, jam guys, tail away, change up on them -- that's the art of pitching. He just carved us up, made it look easy."

BTW: A.J. Pierzinski hit a three run home run in the first inning. It was Pierzinski's third homer in his last six games. He has 101 career homers. Jason Nix hit his first home run of the season in the fourth inning. Nix is taking over for Alexei Ramirez at shortstop, while the young Cuban gathers his thoughts.

Hard, raw stats: In his last six games, Pierzynski is batting .542 with three homers and seven RBIs, lifting his average from .220 to .313.

What I think: This was just the kind of game the pitching staff needed. Buehrle is unquestionably the ace of the staff and this kind of outing shows why. Hopefully, some of Buehrle's confidence will spill over into some the young guns and aging veterans.

Next Up: Texas (15-12) at Chicago (12-14), 7:11 p.m. Jose Contreras (0-5) Matt Harrison (2-2)

"HoSay it ain't so"

On a day when the baseball world paid homage to Jackie Robinson, the Detroit Tigers paid their own special tribute to Mark Fidrych. ...and then Jose Contreas. Jose Contreas (0-2) lost his sixth straight decision to Detroit dating back to August 11, 2006 on Wednesday afternoon. Contreas and the Sox took a 9-0 shalacking at Comerica park.

Tigers starter Armando Galarraga (2-0) was superb in his effort. Galarraga limited Sox bats to only 4 hits while striking out five in 7 1/3. White Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen acknowledges Galarraga's effort, but thought his team beat themselves. "He was very good, but we let him off the hook too many times," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "He's a good pitcher, but we were chasing his slider when we needed hits."

Whatever the case, the Sox could not advance runners when they needed to and Galarraga made pitches rather mistakes. "He made every pitch he needed to make," Josh Fields said. "We got some runners on base, but then he shut us down. That's what we saw on film from him -- he's really good." The scoreboard didn't show any runs for either team until the bottom of the fifth. Placido Polanco put a two spot on the board with a two run double in the inning. The Tigers never looked back. Rather, the Sox never looked ahead.