Mark Buehrle Retires 45 Consecutive Batters

Mark Buehrle pitched a perfect game against the Rays last Thursday and last night set a major league record for consecutive outs. He retired 45 consecutive batters, four more than the previous record set by his teammate Bobby Jenks and Jim Barr.

The Minnesota fans gave Buehrle a standing ovation when he left the mound in the seventh inning, and he tipped his cap to the crowd as he left the field.

Buehrle is the consummate professional, having won at least 10 games every season since 2000 and pitching at least 200 innings in each of those years. He also has made at least 30 starts in each season since 2000.

At 30 years old, he leads all active pitchers his age or younger in wins with 133. C.C. Sabathia is second with 127 wins at the age of 29.

If he can win another seven games this season, that will give him 140 wins after his first ten major league seasons. He may never reach 300 wins but it may not matter when he becomes eligible for the Hall of Fame.

By that time, 270 or 280 wins may be considered Hall of Fame worthy since the emphasis on pitch counts today is taking pitchers out of tie games which they may have won.

Another problem today is that when starters are pulled out of a game while leading, they sometimes are victims of a shoddy bullpen that causes them to get a no decision.

Buehrle had to be happy to break the record but he would have been happier to give up the record for a win. Instead, he took the loss in the 5-3 victory by the Twins.

Gordon Beckham continues to impress, raising his batting average to .300 and driving in two runs to give him 29 runs batted in. He is sixth on the White Sox in RBI, despite having batted only 160 times. Josh Fields is fifth with 30 runs batted in but has batted 83 more times than Beckham.

His 12 doubles are fourth on the team behind Jermaine Dye with 16, but Dye has 177 more at bats.

Beckham is second in on-base percentage with a .374 mark. Jim Thome is ahead of him, at .395. He is fourth in slugging with a .469 slugging percentage, and is third in batting average at .300 with only A.J. Pierzynski at .304 and Scott Podsednik .301 ahead of him.

His .842 OPS is behind only Dye and Thome.

He leads all AL rookies in runs batted in with 29 and leads all AL rookies with at least 100 at bats in batting average with a .300 average. His .374 OBP also leads all AL rookies.

Beckham is only two points behind Nolan Reimold in slugging percentage, with Reimold at .471 and Beckham at .469. He is also two points behind in OPS with Reimold having a .844 mark and Beckham having a .842 percentage.

It looks like Beckham and Reimold are the two main competing hitters for the AL Rookie of the Year Award.

It will be interesting to see how he hits against the Yankees' vaunted pitching staff this weekend.