2007 State of the Sox

April 18: White Sox 6, Rangers 0 (Buehrle no-hitter)

Mark Buehrle had come close to throwing a no-hitter on a couple of occasions -- he had one one-hitter, two two-hitters and three three-hitters under his belt, including one outing in 2004 where he faced the minimum.

Today was his day, and he received plenty of help from his defense and a suddenly somewhat resurgent Sox offense.

I already went into plenty of detail about Buehrle's outing on Sox Machine, but he didn't earn the no-no on his own.  Several Sox made big plays behind him, including:

1. Jermaine Dye's catch at the wall in the second.
2. Joe Crede's diving stab and throw in the third.
3. Tadahito Iguchi's diving stop in the fifth.
4. Juan Uribe's throw (and Paul Konerko's dig) in the seventh.

Ozzie Guillen even went the extra mile and brought in Brian Anderson as a defensive replacement for Rob Mackowiak in the eighth.  Anderson didn't have anything come his way, but he did draw a walk off Eric Gagne in his only plate appearance.

The Sox offense also scored more runs tonight than they had in their previous three games combined, all of them coming via the homer.  Jim Thome had a huge day -- two solo homers and two walks in four plate appearances, and Dye hit his first grand slam of the year.

Dye's slam was impressive on two fronts.  One, the rally started with two outs, when Iguchi singled and Thome and Konerko walked.  Secondly, the at-bat lasted 11 pitches, with Dye fouling off six straight quality pitches from Kevin Millwood before finding one he could drive.  The result was a roped liner that barely cleared the left field wall.

Sox hitters had a better plan at the plate today, going the opposite way more often when the pitches called for it.  The only missed opportunity came in the first, when Paul Konerko missed two hanging curveballs before locking up on a hittable fastball, and Jermaine Dye also missed a grooved fastball.  Both were with two runners on.

The Sox only had seven hits in all, so they have a ways to go before the offense could be considered cured.  Also Darin Erstad went 0-for-4 in the leadoff spot, his average dropping to .156 as his slump hits 2-for-32.

Record: 6-7 | Box score | Play-by-play