Umpire Ends Buehrle's Streak...

[nyhuskyfan]

Mark Buehrle of the White Sox had a streak of 49 straight starts with at least six innings pitched, the longest such streak since Steve Carlton in the late 1970's.

He went 5.2 innings today -- then hit B.J. Surhoff with a pitch and was ejected by the umpire.

Didn't see the highlights yet to know the situation -- but wow. What a shame if a trigger-happy umpire threw him out.

[Doctor_J]

1. I saw it

what an asshole. Buerhle had been twirling another gem, having given up an unearned run. A Sox had been hit the preceding inning, so Buerhle plunked Surhoff in the back (w/ a 2-1 lead at the time) and the ump had tossed Mark before BJ had left the batter's box. Another ump forgetting that people don't watch games to see THEM. Loks like Buerhle is going to get the last laugh and the win though.

[Caution]

2. If a warning had been issued then hitting a batter is an instant ejection

And it sounds like Buerlhe intentionally hit the batter. If that's the case then he would have been ejected even if warnings hadnt been issued.

[Bluzmann57]

3. Ball players generally work things out themselves

They know what's happening out there on the field and the umps as well as the leagues should just let them work it out. These things rarely end up in fights anyway. Usually, a guy gets plunked from team A and the pitcher from team B retaliates and that's the end of it. If a pitcher throws behind a batters head, then he should ejected for trying to do serious damage, but if a batter gets hit in the rear end, then, as I said, let the players work it out.

[ClevelandSportsCurse]

7. Perhaps the umpire was aware of Buerhle taking out Hafner

Travis Hafner was on a hot streak for the Tribe and here Buerhle, who arguably has the best control of any pitcher in baseball, hits Hafner in the face and Hafner has been on the DL ever since (he is doing a rehab stint tonight in Akron). That killed the momentum the Indians had and they have not recovered since. The White Sox are far ahead of everyone in the division and striking the Indians' best player in the face was nothing but cowardly. I don't buy the notion that a pitch slipped from him. Like I said, he has very good control. He can throw a ball in a tea cup. Thus,I don't consider beaning Hafner an accident. Buerhle deserved to get thrown out today and he should have gotten thrown out a couple weeks ago.

[nyhuskyfan]

8. Every time someone gets hit, it is on purpose?

Buerhle is a breaking ball pitcher who rarely hits 90 on the radar gun. When you throw lots of junk, sometimes the junk doesn't do exactly what you want it to. The pitch in question was a sinker -- obviously not the pitch of choice to go after someone's head.

He would have had no reason to go after Hafner. The White Sox won the first two games of the series by the combined score of 8-1 (so it wasn't like the Indians were teeing off on Chicago pitching and he was trying to get people back off the plate). Nobody on either team had been hit by a pitch the day before. Hafner did not have a hit off Buerhle in either of his two previous meetings against him (one of which was a 1-0 White Sox win and the other was an Indians win in 12 innings). Maybe someone stole someone else's girlfriend at one point in life, but other than that, I don't see the motive.

As for Buerhle's control (which is very good, but harldy impeccable -- when he gets hit, it is almost always because he isn't keeping the ball down effectively), let's just say I've backed out of my driveway successfully almost a thousand times. But there was one time I knocked my side view mirror off on a small tree. That wasn't on purpose, either.

[Doctor_J]

10. Exactly

he doesn't throw hard enough to injure anyone, and he's not the kind of guy to throw at someone's head, especially if it puts a Sox win in jeopardy. This is another whiny Indians fan with a vivid imagination.

[Doctor_J]

9. Yawn

Here, have some cheese to go with that whine. The Tribe's "momentum" would have MAYBE gotten them to the level of mediocre, but it's doubtful. And if they can't survive one guy going on the DL for awhile, it's likely that mediocre is a long way off.

Besides having good control, Buerhle is also a good sport and a decent guy. He would never hit someone in the face on purpose. So your post's premise is complete bullshit.

[Mojambo]

4. If Buehrle valued his streak so highly he shouldn't have intentionally hit

a batter.

It's not like Buehrle didn't know that was a possible outcome from intentionally hitting a batter.

This is how umpires have been instructed to do things and players know it. You can bitch about how they shouldn't be calling things this way (and I probably agree) but the fact of the matter is that Buehrle ended his own streak by taking that chance.

[nyhuskyfan]

6. From what I read, there was no warning given...

And Buerhle didn't complain about anything (at least not yet). I just thought it was a remarkable streak and would have liked to see it continue -- getting tossed one out from game #50 seemed a little bizarre. The umpire could have easily issued a warning there (although there was no way he would have been thinking about Buehrle's streak when he tossed him).

Also, it's a slippery slope to say "intentionally hit" without mind-reading ability. If it was the first pitch of an inning (or if the Orioles had just hit back-to-back homers), then it might be easier to make a case. There were two outs and a runner on, so he was putting the go-ahead run on base in a 2-1 game. Maybe it was obvious, I dunno - I didn't see it. It's also possible that there was a lot of chirping between the dugouts and the umpire felt he knew it was coming.

I'll also freely admit that it isn't all that important. In fact, it may be just as well to get the streak over with and not worry about it, so that Buerhle can go ahead and throw some five-inning games down the stretch and save his arm for the playoffs.

Oriole fans certainly can't say anything about streaks being meaningless, though - LOL.

[JohnKleeb]

5. And the Orioles are swept by the ChiSox in whats more important to me

Too bad though, though if he threw at Surhoff then tough.