Mark Buehrle picked a perfect day to be perfect.
Hours after a former teammate’s admission of performance-enhancing drug use revisited a sorry story baseball seems powerless to end, the 30-year-old left-handed artisan who counts President Barack Obama among his admirers further endeared himself to White Sox fans.
One of the longest tenured and most popular Sox players, Buehrle was, simply, perfect in a 5-0 victory over Tampa Bay in Thursday’s matinee at U.S. Cellular Field, retiring all 27 Rays batters without allowing a baserunner.
The second perfect game in franchise history — ol’ Charlie Robertson authored the other in 1922 — looked effortless but was not without drama. Dewayne Wise leaped above the wall in left-center field to deny Gabe Kapler a home run leading off the ninth inning and keep the masterpiece intact.
By the time Jason Bartlett bounced out to short to end it two batters later, former Sox pitcher Jim Parque’s sad tale of trying human growth hormone to revive a flagging career was yesterday’s news. Jubilant teammates mobbed Buehrle, and The Cell crowd joined in the celebration, having been with Buehrle on every pitch since the sixth inning of the 18th perfect game in major-league history.
That’s approximately one every 10,000 games. Buehrle also has a no-hitter, pitched in April 2007 against Texas, one of 263 in MLB annals.
Normally such gems are the province of the power-armed — Nolan Ryan fired seven no-hitters. Buehrle is more of a craftsman, a clever, efficient control pitcher with guts to match his guile. As a result of his career-best effort, the Sox headed off to Detroit tied with the Tigers for first place in the American League Central.
On the South Side, a perfect day all the way around.
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dmcgrath@tribune.com
