Perfect Game - Mark Buehrle

 Every Perfect Game is a team effort. Even when Sandy Koufax and Matt Cain struck out a record 13 batters in their PGs, that still meant that the other 14 outs had to come from the field. And not every ball put into play in a PG is routine, and it stands to reason that there will come a point where a defender is going to have to go above and beyond in order to make a play to preserve perfection. They usually don't overshadow the accomplishment on the mound that day, but some come very close because of the situation and the jaw dropping play itself and earn almost as much discussion afterwards.

Mark Buehrle entered his start on July 23, 2009 with a pretty nice resume to that point. He had just represented the Chicago White Sox earlier that month at the all star game, on his way to his 1st Gold Glove award, a few seasons removed from being on a World Series winner and already having pitched a No-Hitter back in 2007. On this day, he took to the mound for a home start at U.S. Cellular Field against the Tampa Bay Rays about to add another accomplishment to the list.

The Rays are debuting in this series, but they are about to be very common as this is the 1st of three and 1st of back-to-back instances that they were victimized for a perfecto. Buehrle cruised along with 6 Strikeouts and needed 116 pitches to put the Rays down quietly...mostly quietly. Mark's effort was aided by a Grand Slam in the 2nd inning, the first time a Perfect Game featured such a homer, and an extra run in the 5th to easily win the game 5-0.

Usually the biggest highlight of a perfecto is the final out, but all anyone could talk about was the clutch homer-robbing catch by Dewayne Wise. Now, many major defensive plays in a PG usually happen in the earlier innings, where their true impact isn't appreciated until after, or the difficulty of the play is sometimes hyped up because it happened in service to the 27-up-27-down game...but Wise's catch didn't need to be hyped and couldn't come at a more critical time. The man robbed a Home Run, which that fact alone puts it in "play of the year" conversations, and it went down in the 9th inning where *everybody* knew what was on the line as he went after that deep fly ball.

Buehrle's gem became the 2nd in White Sox history, the first being Charlie Robertson way back in 1922, and the 1st time ever the Tampa Bay Rays would be apart of. As mentioned above, it wouldn't be the last time for the poor Rays, but the White Sox weren't done either.

Buehrle would win the Gold Glove in 2009, making him the 1st Perfect Game pitcher to also win the Gold Glove that year as well. For the game he helped himself out with a couple Assists and a Putout to go along with his 6 Strikeouts.

Castro had recently been traded for by the White Sox, and it happened to be the 1st time catching for Buehrle. Some batterymates need loads of time to get into a rhythm...Buehrle and Castro apparently were on the same page day 1.

The purpose for Fields in 2009 was to be that bench option used to give other guys the occasional day off. On this day he was starting at 1st Base while Paul Konerko was getting a break as the DH, and he made it count as he hit the 1st ever Grand Slam in PG history.

Kazmir's tenure as a Ray would come to an end not long after this start as he would be sent off west to the Angels a little more than a month after. He was battling injuries and mechanics issues in 2009, so matching up against perfection wasn't exactly the best scenario to tweak his delivery.

Showdown original Gabe Kapler was still showing a little pop in his bat like in his official 2000 card, and he came close to ruining Buehrle's game in the 9th inning when he led off and smacked a would-be homer to deep left-center...

...and Dewayne Wise robbed him. Wise didn't start the game. He only had just entered the game as a defensive replacement in Centerfield, and the very 1st batter (Kapler) put Wise to the test. Manager Ozzie Guillen looked like a psychic as Wise and his superior defensive skill saved the day immediately upon his entry. Soon after, the very spot on the top of the wall where Wise made the play would have "The Catch" printed on it so it can memorialize the moment that he saved a historical game.
...People not familiar with White Sox history may also wonder what the heck "The Catch" has to do with Billy Pierce, though.

As with other notable Perfect Game pitchers, this wasn't the 1st time Buehrle pitched himself a No-Hitter. He threw one in 2007, and here's what he looked like for that year.