September 30: White Sox 1, Indians 0 (Game 2)
Mark Buehrle suffered through a difficult second half, but he ended his season on a fine note.
Buehrle threw six efficient shutout innings, needing only 79 pitches for his 13th victory of the season. He didn’t allow a baserunner before he recorded two outs in an inning, and he didn’t walk a batter.
He frontloaded his start with tension. The Indians put runners on second and third after a single and double, but Matt LaPorta grounded out to second to end the inning.
That groundout started a run in which Buehrle retired 18 of his last 19 batters, with only Trevor Crowe reaching on an infield single.
Paul Konerko provided the only run off an excellent Justin Masterson, beating a single back up the middle to score Dewayne Wise in the fifth inning. The Sox had stranded a runner on third with less than two outs on two occasions prior to Konerko’s knock.
Konerko then followed it up by stealing second, his first of the year. It was odd considering Konerko failed to score from second, setting up one of the aforementioned failures.
Masterson ended up striking out 12 Sox, a career-high. But it wasn’t enough, as Tony Pena served as a one-man bridge to Matt Thornton, who closed it out with a 1-2-3 inning.
Record: 77-82 | Box score | Play-by-play
