When Mark Buehrle fires his first pitch of Tuesday’s season opener against the Royals, he will have tied White Sox legend and fellow lefty Billy Pierce for the club record for most Opening Day starts (seven). Pierce was 3-3 with a 3.48 earned-run average in openers, but take away the two against the Detroit Tigers, the team of his youth and one that gave him problems throughout his career, and that record becomes 3-2 and a 2.70 ERA.
Buehrle’s six openers (2-1, 4.05)
April 1, 2002: Threw six innings of two-hit ball in Seattle before bullpen almost let 6-5 victory get away.
March 31, 2003: Allowed just six hits and two runs in seven innings in Kansas City but lost 3-0.
April 5, 2004: Went 62/3 innings and allowed three runs (two earned) before spectacular bullpen collapse (six-run ninth) gave the host Royals a 9-7 victory.
April 4, 2005: Turned in eight innings of two-hit shutout pitching to blank Cleveland 1-0 at The Cell.
April 2, 2006: In MLB’s rain-delayed Sunday night season opener, Buehrle went four innings and allowed three runs, but the host Sox routed Cleveland 10-4.
March 31, 2008: Battered for seven runs in 12/3 innings, but Sox took him off the hook by rallying for 7-7 tie before losing 10-8 in Cleveland.
Pierce’s mostly splendid seven openers
April 17, 1951: Beat the hapless Browns 17-3 before a throng of 5,660 in St. Louis. Pierce gave up 10 hits and got in on the fun with two singles and three runs scored.
April 15, 1952: Lost 3-2 to Early Wynn and Indians at Comiskey Park.
April 13, 1954: Lost 8-2 to Wynn and the Indians, again at Comiskey, this time lasting 6 1/3 innings and allowing 11 hits and five runs.
April 17, 1956: Beat Cleveland and Bob Lemon 2-1 in Chicago, working all nine innings and giving up five hits.
April 16, 1957: Beat the Indians in Cleveland 3-2, outdueling Herb Score in 11 innings. Larry Doby’s two-out RBI single in the 11th was the difference.
April 15, 1958: Lost to Detroit and Jim Bunning 4-3 in Chicago, allowing his hometown team nine hits and four runs in six innings.
April 10, 1959: Sox won in Detroit 9-7 in 14 on a rare HR by Nellie Fox, but Pierce went just five innings, giving up seven hits and four runs.
Notes: Saul Rogovin got the Opening Day assignment in 1953 and lost 6-0 at Cleveland; Pierce started the home opener two days later and one-hit the Browns 1-0. … In 1955, Pierce was coming off a season of arm trouble, and the Opening Day start went to 19-game winner Virgil Trucks, who lost to Bob Lemon and the Indians 5-1 in Cleveland. … Pierce pitched the 1959 home opener, four days after the actual opener in Detroit, and blanked Kansas City 2-0 on 6 hits. … In Buehrle’s 2005 gem, Shingo Takatsu pitched the ninth inning for the save.
