Mark Buehrle's Perfecto

I am on a baseball road trip with my son, Jason, and yesterday we were at Baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. There's a room called Today's Game that looks like a locker room with 30 lockers, one for each major league team. Each locker has a history of the team with photos, highlights and artifacts about the team. I was looking at the Chicago White Sox locker and there on the top shelf is Mark Buehrle's hat from his no-hitter in 2007.

I turned around, walked a few steps and there's a video screen with a boxscore on it. Oh cool. I'm a boxscore geek, and here's the boxscore from Buehrle's 2007 no-hitter! And it's an in-progress version. It's showing the game in the eighth inning.

Wait a minute now. I call my son over.

"Jason, are the White Sox playing an afternoon game today?"

"Yeah."

"Are they playing the Rays?"

"Yep."

"Oh my gosh! Mark Buehrle is throwing another no-hitter. He has a no-hitter through eight innings!"

We rush off to find an attendant. We tell her about the no-hitter going on and ask her if there is a TV anywhere in the hall. Sure, she says. Come with me. She leads us to find a TV. We walk right through Hall of Fame Plaque Gallery. She leads us to the Bullpen Theater. Unfortunately, the TV was in use for an audience-participation trivia contest. We walk into the A.Bartlett Giamatti Research Center to use the internet, but by the time we can get the game up on mlb.com, it's over. A perfect game for Mark Buehrle!

They told me that they are going to ask for Dewayne Wise's glove to put on display at the hall. I'm going back in a couple of years to take a look at that. I'll make sure it's during a Mark Buehrle start once again.

Here's some interesting info on the Rays hitters against Mark Buerhle.

The hitters in the Rays lineup against Mark Buehrle yesterday at U.S. Cellular Field entered the game batting a collective .303 (53-for-175) against the White Sox lefty before he tossed the first perfect game in the majors since 2004. After the game, the lineup’s collective batting average dropped over 40 points to .262 (53-for-202).

The Bill James Daily Match-Ups, a free service provided by ACTA Sports, details individual hitter statistics against opponent pitchers for each game. Entering the game yesterday, Carl Crawford was batting a team-high .483 against Buehrle, but saw his average drop nearly 50 points after his 0-for-3 afternoon. Catcher Michel Hernandez faced Buehrle for the first time yesterday and was likely in the lineup because Dioner Navarro was only 1-for-8 in his career against the southpaw.

To subscribe to the Bill James Daily Match-Ups, send an email to matchups@actasports.com with your name, favorite team and where you buy your sports books.