By Dave van Dyck
Buehrle gets support, retires 15 straight
Hidden by their 3-3 record after the first homestand is the exclamation-point start for a White Sox rotation that had question marks attached to every one of its five spots.
After Sunday's 6-1 victory over the Twins, Sox starters have the third-best ERA in baseball at 2.29, helped the last two days by No. 5 Bartolo Colon and No. 1 Mark Buehrle.
Buehrle followed up Colon's six shutout innings Saturday with one run in 61/3 innings Sunday, which he acknowledged was "10 times better than my last game."
"If we continue to pitch like we have, this ballclub will be interesting," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "This division, this league is about pitching and health. Everybody's got a good lineup. You pitch well, you win."
Well, most of the time—though Gavin Floyd is 0-1 after giving up two runs in seven innings and John Danks is 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA.
But the Sox have won both of Buehrle's starts, thanks in large part to Jim Thome, who socked a game-winning three-run homer in the eighth on Opening Day and then what turned into a game-winning two-run shot in the sixth Sunday.
Buehrle did the rest, though Bobby Jenks had to bail Clayton Richard out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth with a strikeout of ex-teammate Joe Crede and a double-play ground ball.
"I didn't have any time to think about it," Jenks said. "I had one batter to get ready, and I really just came in and attacked the zone."
Buehrle allowed only two hits, including a home run by Delmon Young, and retired the final 15 batters before Guillen took the ball from him in a conversation-filled visit to the mound in the seventh.
"He was asking me how I do it," Buehrle said. "He said, 'I looked up in the first inning and I see a pitch at 78 m.p.h., and I don't know how you get people out.' We're always joking around with each other."
Said catcher A.J. Pierzynski: "It was awesome to see Mark throw that way and have the movement he had. Basically, he made one mistake. Other than that, he was pretty darn good.
"Without a doubt, our starting pitching has been outstanding. We haven't hit the way we'd like to, but the last couple of days have been better."
The offense actually pieced together nine hits Sunday, including Jermaine Dye's 299th career homer to lead off the eighth.
They even had an impressive small-ball rally that produced two insurance runs in the seventh. Alexei Ramirez singled and was sacrificed by ninth hitter Dewayne Wise, who has four hits in his last eight at-bats after an 0-for-12 start. Chris Getz then was hit in the right hand and left the game.
Josh Fields followed with an RBI single, and then pinch-runner Brent Lillibridge scored on a shallow sacrifice fly by Carlos Quentin. The Sox have just two batters over .300—Fields and Dye—and Thome is at .211 despite his team-leading five RBIs.
"It's just nice to contribute, and I'm trying to have good at-bats," Thome said. "Sometimes it's not happening. You've got to work and get better. The last couple of days we've been swinging the bats well. [But] good teams get good pitching."
After Sunday's 6-1 victory over the Twins, Sox starters have the third-best ERA in baseball at 2.29, helped the last two days by No. 5 Bartolo Colon and No. 1 Mark Buehrle.
Buehrle followed up Colon's six shutout innings Saturday with one run in 61/3 innings Sunday, which he acknowledged was "10 times better than my last game."
"If we continue to pitch like we have, this ballclub will be interesting," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "This division, this league is about pitching and health. Everybody's got a good lineup. You pitch well, you win."
Well, most of the time—though Gavin Floyd is 0-1 after giving up two runs in seven innings and John Danks is 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA.
But the Sox have won both of Buehrle's starts, thanks in large part to Jim Thome, who socked a game-winning three-run homer in the eighth on Opening Day and then what turned into a game-winning two-run shot in the sixth Sunday.
Buehrle did the rest, though Bobby Jenks had to bail Clayton Richard out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth with a strikeout of ex-teammate Joe Crede and a double-play ground ball.
"I didn't have any time to think about it," Jenks said. "I had one batter to get ready, and I really just came in and attacked the zone."
Buehrle allowed only two hits, including a home run by Delmon Young, and retired the final 15 batters before Guillen took the ball from him in a conversation-filled visit to the mound in the seventh.
"He was asking me how I do it," Buehrle said. "He said, 'I looked up in the first inning and I see a pitch at 78 m.p.h., and I don't know how you get people out.' We're always joking around with each other."
Said catcher A.J. Pierzynski: "It was awesome to see Mark throw that way and have the movement he had. Basically, he made one mistake. Other than that, he was pretty darn good.
"Without a doubt, our starting pitching has been outstanding. We haven't hit the way we'd like to, but the last couple of days have been better."
The offense actually pieced together nine hits Sunday, including Jermaine Dye's 299th career homer to lead off the eighth.
They even had an impressive small-ball rally that produced two insurance runs in the seventh. Alexei Ramirez singled and was sacrificed by ninth hitter Dewayne Wise, who has four hits in his last eight at-bats after an 0-for-12 start. Chris Getz then was hit in the right hand and left the game.
Josh Fields followed with an RBI single, and then pinch-runner Brent Lillibridge scored on a shallow sacrifice fly by Carlos Quentin. The Sox have just two batters over .300—Fields and Dye—and Thome is at .211 despite his team-leading five RBIs.
"It's just nice to contribute, and I'm trying to have good at-bats," Thome said. "Sometimes it's not happening. You've got to work and get better. The last couple of days we've been swinging the bats well. [But] good teams get good pitching."
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