Mark Buehrle Tosses Perfect Game…

Chicago White Sox ace Mark Buehrle accomplished, in my opinion, the hardest thing to do in sports today – he threw a perfect game. Buehrle retired all 27 batters be faced in the White Sox 5-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Buehrle threw 116 pitches and threw a ridiculous 76 of them for strikes. Even more importantly, Buehrle threw first-pitch strikes to 19 out of the 17 batters he faced.

Why can’t all pitchers work like Buehrle? Work quickly and throw strikes. If you pound the strike zone you will get hitters out at any level. That is a fact.

Buehrle’s perfect game marks just the 18th time a pitcher has retired every batter he has faced in a game in major league history.

With the win, Buehrle improved to 11-3 on the season. Along with Zack Greinke and Roy Halladay, Buerhle is now a serious Cy Young candidate.

Interesting note from the RaysIndex.com’s Twitter page. Only two out of the 17 previous teams that have had a perfect game thrown against them have made the playoffs that year. The 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers (Tom Browning threw a perfect game against them) and the 2004 Atlanta Braves (Randy Johnson tossed a perfect against the Braves).