Buehrle’s perfect game was the 18th perfect game in the history of the game. What will be remembered most, besides the perfect game itself, will be the incredible play that Dewayne Wise made in center field to save the day.

In the ninth inning, Wise sprinted to the wall, jumped and robbed Gabe Kapler of a home run. In one play, Wise saved Buehrle’s perfect game, no-hitter and shutout. A video of the great play is at the end of this blog entry.

Riding Buehrle’s perfect game, the White Sox beat the Rays by a final count of 5-0. Four of the five runs were scored when Josh Fields hit a second inning grand slam.

On Thursday, that was all the support Buehrle needed. The White Sox pitcher was magical. And with a little help, he was perfect.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

On the third pitch of the game, Gomez hit a homer against White Sox starter Mark Buehrle. In the fifth inning, Gomez hit the triple. The double came in the sixth inning. Gomez’s single didn’t come until the ninth inning.

On the season, Gomez is hitting .282 with two homeruns, 11 RBI, 19 runs and 13 stolen basses. Gomez was acquired from the New York Mets in the offseason in the trade that sent ace pitcher Johan Santana to the Mets.

With the win, the Twins improved to 17-15 and remain in first place in the AL Central. The White Sox loss drops Chicago to 15-17 and they are now in third place in the AL Central. Apparently, the White Sox slump buster blowup dolls don’t protect against cycles.

Photo: Newscom

Post from: Knuckle Curve

• The Mets beat the Marlins, 7-2. The planet’s best pitcher against a Triple-A squad — who could’ve have anticipated such a result? Uh, everyone.
• The Pittsburgh/Atlanta game was insane. The Pirates took a 9-4 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but the Braves tied. Then the Bucs jumped ahead in the 12th, 12-9, before allowing two runs in the bottom half and hanging on for a 12-11 victory. Xavier Nady, whom I’ve been following since he took home Cal League MVP honors in 2001 while playing for a great Lake Elsinore Storm club (Peavy and Mets left-hander Oliver Perez also played on that team, which went 91-49), knocked two homers, including the game winner.
• The Giants really stink. Good thing they’re paying Barry Zito all that money.
• The Brewers and Cubs ran a clinic on how not to close a game. Locked in a scoreless tie headed to the ninth, Milwaukee plated three runs in the top half off “closer” Kerry Wood, then watched “closer” Eric Gagne cough up three of his own in the bottom half. The Brewers scored in the top of the 10th and hung on to win, 4-3. Who got credit for the victory? The least deserving guy in the ballpark, of course: Gagne. The next time someone tries to tell you that a pitcher is good because of his won-loss record, remind them that the rules dictating how a win is “earned” don’t necessarily correlate with actually contributing to victory.
• Break up the Nationals. With Monday’s 11-6 drubbing of Philadelphia, they’re assured of finishing no worse than 2-160 this year.
• Livan Hernandez pitched well in his Twins debut. Actually, for all the grief Minnesota took in signing him, he matched Johan Santana’s line — two runs in seven innings — and got the win. Not that he’ll keep pace with Santana beyond, oh, right about now, but still…
• The White Sox seem to be a sexy dark horse candidate this season, but I just don’t see it. By my count, they’ve got about three or four good pitchers, depending on whether you believe Octavio Dotel can stay of the disabled list. One of them (Mark Buehrle) got absolutely pounded at Cleveland. Granted, the Indians will do that to a pitcher, but if the White Sox can’t win behind Buehrle, then what are they going to do when, say, Gavin Floyd toes the slab?

Good times, my friends. Good times…

Post from: Knuckle Curve