How odd was yesterday in Chicago baseball? I’m glad you asked. Mark Buehrle set a world’s record for the most batters retired in a row, at 45, and lost the game. Alfonso Soriano did his best “Betsy Ballerina” impression while spinning the wrong way to catch a ball and caught it anyway. Scott Podsednik seemed to set up perfectly on an easy fly ball and watched as it bounced in front of him and opened the flood gates for Buehrle’s loss. Fukudome drilled a shot back at the pitcher and watched it get caught under his shirt which allowed him to reach base safely.
Yes, as I noted, yesterday was odd. Let’s let the professional writers fill us in. First, for the Sox, JOE COWLEY (Sun Times).
Mark Buehrle gave it a hell of a run.
Making his first appearance on the mound since reaching perfection five days earlier, the White Sox left-handed pitcher wasn’t quite done stamping a place in major-league history on Tuesday.
What started off as ‘’How long will it last?’’ went to ‘’You’ve got to be kidding me’’ by the sixth inning, as Buehrle began the stanza once again pitching a perfect game.
But as the Sox have found out far too often in the Metrodome, good things end quickly in the Twins Cities for them, and they often end ugly.
Buehrle did establish a new major-league record, retiring 45 consecutive hitters to break the old record of 41 held by teammate Bobby Jenks and former Giants pitcher Jim Barr, but that mattered little on the scoreboard—Twins 5, Sox 3.
Just a little aside, Jim Barr set the record in 1972. Jenks tied it in 2007. That record has been around for a little while overall and I doubt we are going to see Buehrle’s number crash any time soon.
But, another record was set yesterday as well. The first time Mark Buehlre has been anything but pleasant to the media. He was a tad irritated after the loss, and it showed. Back to Joe.
‘’Right now, nothing,’’ Buehrle responded, when asked how he felt about his major-league record. ‘’This is the most fired up I’ve been after a game. I don’t mind if guys hit the ball hard, but I’m not big into broken-bat singles. Maybe it will mean more to me tomorrow when I cool off.’’
As Buehrle was taken out of the game midway through the seventh-inning meltdown, he did receive a standing ovation from the Metrodome crowd. Or maybe it was a thank-you, considering how the Twins (51-50) continue to feast off the Sox and their lack of fundamentals when the two teams meet on the turf.
In the meantime, on the North Side, the Cubs hosted a large group of potential investors who left the game early. Way to impress there guys! They actually managed to lose a game where all the breaks possible went their way. GORDON WITTENMYER (Sun Times) fills us in.
Almost every break that could go the Cubs’ way did on Tuesday night against the Houston Astros—from Houston ace Roy Oswalt’s early exit to Kosuke Fukudome’s single into pitcher Jeff Fulchino’s shirt to Alfonso Soriano’s 360-degree pirouette the wrong way to nonetheless make a catch in left field in the eighth inning.
But the only break that mattered at the end of the night was the Cubs’ broken five-game winning streak after Houston outhit the Cubs’ good fortune in an 11-6 victory at Wrigley Field—dropping the Cubs from first place in the National League Central.
Ryan Dempster’s rusty return from his broken right big toe lasted just five innings and left the Cubs in a 6-3 hole—despite Houston being forced to go to its bullpen in the second inning when Oswalt left the game with a lower back strain.
Except for a brief interlude of dumb luck and power in the fifth, it was mostly downhill for the Cubs after that.
‘’It was frustrating. It was by no means my best performance, that’s for sure,’’ said Dempster, whose throw into center field on a first-and-third, no-out comebacker contributed to a three-run third. ‘’And it was disappointing, too, because we played 13 innings [Monday] night, and I knew I was on a short pitch count, but I wanted to be able to give the bullpen a little bit of a break, so I feel I let those guys down.’’
So, for both teams, all the good stuff they could possibly ask to happen, happened, and they both lost anyway. As noted, it as an odd day.