Let’s make Lucas Giolito show how fast Mark Buehrle worked

Mark Buehrle pinball machine illustration by Carl Skanberg
Mark Buehrle pinball machine illustration (Carl Skanberg)

On the podium of Mark Buehrle games, the gold and silver medals are spoken for. His perfect game on July 23, 2009, tops them all, overshadowing the no-hitter he threw on April 18, 2007, along the way.

Some may quibble over which one takes the bronze. It might be his complete game in the 2005 ALCS, especially considering he would have started the top of the 10th if A.J. Pierzynski, Pablo Ozuna and Joe Crede didn’t team up to end it in the bottom of the ninth. Maybe you think about July 21, 2004, the first of the three times he faced the minimum 27 batters, ending in a two-hitter of the Cleveland Indians.

The easy choice for me occurred 15 years ago today, when he squared off against Seattle’s Ryan Franklin for a complete game and a 2-1 White Sox winner that took just 99 minutes.

Such a short game is unthinkable now, but it was a marvel even when it happened. Only two games from this century come within five minutes of the time, and they were a pair of 3-0 Detroit Tigers victories. The first was a 101-minute duel between Jose Lima and Kansas City’s Paul Byrd in 2002, and the other is the Armando Galarraga Imperfect Game in 2010, which took 104 minutes (Jim Joyce blew it two different ways!). The last game to match Buehrle’s CG in tidiness is old enough to run for president.

In today’s game? Forget it. A Mets-Marlins game on May 19 is the only nine-inning game in 2019 that wrapped up in less than two hours, and it only had a minute to spare.

The thing about Buehrle’s 99-minute complete game is that it wasn’t an unprecedented feat of efficiency, at least in terms of pitch count (107) or batters faced (31). He also struck out 12 Mariners, so it’s not like the Seattle lineup put every other first pitch in play. He just worked as fast as the hitters would let him, and only one Mariner remembered to even try the brake pedal.


For some valuable context, let’s compare Buehrle’s gem against a start that’s fresher in our memories: Lucas Giolito’s three-hit shutout against the Twins last August. It’s the most recent example of easy dominance that most of us watched, either in person or on a recent pandemic delay re-broadcast. Giolito worked over a high-powered offense, and it seemed like he barely broke a sweat. It’s also a worthwhile example for a few other reasons:

  • They faced a comparable amount of batters
  • They matched each other in the strikeout column
  • The games were afternoon affairs (Giolito on a Wednesday, Buehrle on a Saturday)
  • Giolito represents the average MLB pace in 2019.

When you stack their performances, Buehrle only holds the edge in pitch count …

IPHRBBKPitGSc
Buehrle93111210688
Giolito93001211593

… but when it comes to the time of game, Buehrle blows him away:

  • Buehrle: 1 hour, 39 minutes
  • Giolito: 3 hours, 16 minutes

The direct comparison between game times is a little unfair to Giolito for circumstances beyond his control. Buehrle pitched at home, so his game didn’t require the playing of the bottom of the ninth. More crucially, Giolito’s teammates hassled Jake Odorizzi and compelled Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli to use four relievers. Buehrle’s counterpart, Ryan Franklin, was a model of efficiency himself, allowing just four hits over eight innings on a measly 91 pitches that afternoon. Unfortunately for him, two of those hits were Paul Konerko solo shots that provided Buehrle the exact amount of offense he needed. Waste not, want not.

It’s more useful to isolate Giolito’s pace from the rest of the proceedings, especially because FanGraphs says his pace between pitches on the day (24.6 seconds) was within a rounding error of the average MLB pitcher (24.9). Buehrle’s pace data doesn’t show up in consistent form until 2008, but over the remainder of his career, he routinely registered between 16 and 18 seconds per pitch. As you might expect, he has no peers nowadays. Wade Miley is the only pitcher with a pace faster than 20 seconds, and just barely (19.6).

Seven seconds may not seem like much, but it adds up in a hurry. You can see it when you only look at the time Buehrle and Giolito spent facing their opponents on the mound.

Using my trusty curling stopwatch, I started timing innings (roughly) at the time the umpire took his position for the batter, and stopped timing them upon the recording of the final out, clicking for splits at the end of each batter along the way. This isolates Buehrle and Giolito from most of the other things out of their control, namely commercials and the success of their offenses. They can’t necessarily control the speed at which batters go about their business, but Buehrle encouraged batters to work faster by getting back to the rubber immediately, and they complied more often than not.

Let’s proceed. If you’d like to follow along, you can watch the entirety of Buehrle’s start without commercials here, and Giolito’s game on for free on MLB.tv with an MLB.com account.

Starting Lineups

Seattle Mariners

vs. Mark Buehrle, April 16, 2005

  1. Ichiro Suzuki, RF
  2. Randy Winn, LF
  3. Adrian Beltre, 3B
  4. Bret Boone, 2B
  5. Raul Ibanez, DH
  6. Scott Spezio, 1B
  7. Willie Bloomquist, CF
  8. Dan Wilson, C
  9. Wilson Valdez, SS

Minnesota Twins

vs. Lucas Giolito, Aug. 21, 2019

  1. Max Kepler, CF
  2. Jorge Polanco, SS
  3. Nelson Cruz, DH
  4. Eddie Rosario, LF
  5. Miguel Sano, 1B
  6. Luis Arraez, 3B
  7. Jonathan Schoop, 2B
  8. Jason Castro, C
  9. Jake Cave, RF

First Inning

Mark Buehrle: Ichiro Suzuki, coming off a record 262-hit season, dashed Buehrle’s hopes for his first no-hitter two pitches into the game with a single to center. Randy Winn bunted at Joe Crede to move Suzuki to second, but Suzuki didn’t advance any further. Adrian Beltre, playing his first season in Seattle, lashes a lineout to center, and Boone pops out to first. That’s a lot of action on eight pitches, and the whole inning takes three minutes and 10 seconds to complete.

Lucas Giolito: Giolito’s dreams of perfection only last six pitches, as Jorge Polanco beats the shift with a bunt two batters in. Giolito responds with a pair of strikeouts. It foreshadows the dominance to come, but thanks to 18 pitches, Giolito is already five minutes behind Buehrle.

Breakdown: First Inning

Mark BuehrleLucas Giolito
BatterPitTimeBatterPitTime
Suzuki20:20Kepler51:31
Winn10:54Polanco12:14
Beltre21:55Cruz54:52
Boone33:10Rosario78:17
Total83:10Total188:17

Second Inning

Mark Buehrle: With Suzuki out of the way, Buehrle throws his first 1-2-3 inning of the afternoon, including his first two strikeouts of the afternoon. Raul Ibanez at least makes Buehrle work harder than any other Mariner batter all day, seeing seven pitches to start the inning. The relative inefficiency gives Giolito a chance to catch up in terms of pitch count.

Hawk Harrelson and Darrin Jackson are in the booth. Back then, you could email them at their joint AOL.com address.

Lucas Giolito: Three up, three down on just nine pitches. Luis Arraez, who was the hardest strikeout target of any MLB hitter with at least 350 plate appearances in 2019, looked particularly confused during his first time up.

Giolito needed more than twice the pitches than Buehrle in the first, so it made sense that he needed twice the time. With the pitch counts nearly reversed, it stands to reason that Giolito should be able to regain some time lost … right?

Breakdown: Second Inning

Mark BuehrleLucas Giolito
BatterPitTimeBatterPitTime
Ibanez71:19Sano10:10
Spezio52:28Arraez52:04
B’quist43:31Schoop33:18
Total246:41Total2711:35

This inning gives you one idea of how quickly Buehrle worked. Despite throwing seven fewer pitches than Buehrle in the second inning, Giolito gained a total of 13 seconds. Look at the second batter row — Buehrle and Giolito both threw five pitches, but Giolito needed nearly two minutes for his strikeout, while Buehrle recorded his K in a very nice 69 seconds.

Third Inning

Mark Buehrle: Buehrle puts himself back on the course for a complete game with an eight-pitch inning, surviving a lashed lineout from Suzuki to end the frame.

Lucas Giolito: Another nine-pitch inning for Giolito, even with two strikeouts this time. This is Giolito’s only inning without a foul ball, which should help him in the pace department since hitters and fielders didn’t need time to reset during a plate appearance … except Buehrle didn’t induce a foul ball this frame, either. And he had two such innings.

Breakdown: Third Inning

Mark BuehrleLucas Giolito
BatterPitTimeBatterPitTime
Wilson51:06Castro41:07
Valdez11:40Cave32:14
Suzuki22:28Kepler23:16
Total329:09Total3614:51

Fourth Inning

Mark Buehrle: This inning is Buehrle’s most laborious of the afternoon, as all four batters make him throw at least four pitches. Even then, Buehrle’s not really breaking a sweat. Beltre is the easiest out, with this awkward swing on a 1-2 fastball out of the zone for the second out.

Buehrle follows that strikeout with his only walk of the game. He appeared content to work around the right-handed Bret Boone to face the lefty Ibanez, who made Buehrle throw six pitches but went down flailing.

Lucas Giolito: Before Ryan Goins joined the White Sox, my only memory of him was during his Toronto days, when his error opened the floodgates during Buehrle’s final start and prevented him from recording the five outs he needed for a 16th consecutive 200-inning season.

An equally uncharacteristic error also looms large in this one. After Cruz reached with a one-out single, Giolito threw a beautiful changeup resulting in a tailor-made double play off the bat of Eddie Rosario … if only Goins didn’t airmail the throw.

Had Goins successfully turned two, Giolito would have put his biggest dent of the day into Buehrle’s lead. Instead, even though he lowered his pitch count below Buehrle’s for the first time all day, he somehow lost nearly another minute and a half.

Breakdown: Fourth Inning

Mark BuehrleLucas Giolito
BatterPitTimeBatterPitTime
Winn51:33Polanco41:28
Beltre42:40Cruz43:11
Boone53:43Rosario34:52
Ibanez65:47Sanó47:11
Total5214:56Total5122:02

Fifth Inning

Mark Buehrle: Buehrle regains a handle on his pitch count with a 1-2-3 inning, with an assist from first base umpire Tim Timmons, who rings up Dan Wilson on the quintessential 50/50 checked-swing call to end the inning.

Lucas Giolito: Giolito throws his quickest inning of the afternoon in terms of pitches, working a 1-2-3 frame on just eight pitches. Even though he threw four fewer pitches, he somehow lost 14 seconds of ground.

Breakdown: Fifth Inning

Mark BuehrleLucas Giolito
BatterPitTimeBatterPitTime
Spezio50:50Arraez51:34
B’quist31:46Schoop22:30
Wilson43:02Castro13:16
Total6417:58Total5925:18

 
The secret is in the first batter (but I’ll never tell!).

Sixth Inning

Mark Buehrle: Buehrle allows his second hit of the game, and of course it’s to Ichiro, who pulls a seeing-eye single past a diving Tadahito Iguchi with one out. Buehrle almost picks him off, but has to settle for getting the two outs at the plate on a total of four pitches.

Before Suzuki interrupted Buehrle’s streak of five consecutive batters retired, Buehrle was working even too fast for his own comfort. He could have quick-pitched Wilson Valdez, whose call for time wasn’t granted by home plate umpire Mike Everitt. Buehrle did Valdez the favor …

… before ultimately recording the strikeout with a changeup.

Lucas Giolito: Giolito keeps rolling, retiring the side with another single-digit pitch count via three outs in the air. This is the first inning Buehrle and Giolito face a different amount of batters, and Giolito gains 20 seconds of time as a result.

Breakdown: Sixth Inning

Mark BuehrleLucas Giolito
BatterPitTimeBatterPitTime
Valdez51:09Cave30:47
Suzuki32:05Kepler21:57
Winn13:04Polanco44:00
Beltre34:20
Total7622:18Total6829:18

Seventh Inning

Mark Buehrle: With Ichiro out of the way, Buehrle resumes cruising. He puts together another streak of five consecutive batters retired with a 1-2-3 inning, and this frame is the shortest of the day.

One guy who had a great view of the action? Noah Wyle, star of “ER.” He threw out the first pitch of the game while filming in town, and he’s sitting near the visitors’ on-deck circle in the Scout Seats.

Lucas Giolito: Giolito runs his streak to 11 consecutive batters retired, and on a respectable 12 pitches. Adam Engel keeps the leadoff man off the bases with this fine catch on a knuckling 110-mph liner off the bat of Cruz.

https://streamable.com/m/engel-s-tough-tumbling-catch

Giolito’s rolling, but he’s also slowing. His inning takes more than twice the time of Buehrle’s to complete. There’s now a 10-minute gap between the two, and it doesn’t get any closer from here on out.

Breakdown: Seventh Inning

Mark BuehrleLucas Giolito
BatterPitTimeBatterPitTime
Boone51:00Cruz61:46
Ibanez21:37Adrianza*22:55
Spezio22:15Sanó44:51
Total8524:33Total8035:09

*Note: Ehire Adrianza replaced Eddie Rosario in the field in the top of the sixth.

Eighth Inning

Mark Buehrle: Two recurring themes: One, no Ichiro, no problem, as Buehrle throws a 1-2-3 inning on nine pitches. 

Two, Valdez is the only Mariner who attempted to disrupt Buehrle’s timing in any meaningful way all afternoon. After calling time unsuccessfully on Buehrle while down 1-2 his last time up, he steps out again on the same count. It’s unclear if he calls for time, or if it’s even possible for time to be called, because Everitt is still setting up when Valdez looks back.

However it happened, it doesn’t matter. Valdez still strikes out two pitches and 16 seconds later for Buehrle’s 10 K of the day. After the game, Buehrle tells Harrelson that this was the only time he shook off Chris Widger, because Buehrle held a changeup after Valdez reset, and he didn’t want to regrip.

Lucas Giolito: Giolito didn’t make many mistakes all day, but he floats a high changeup on a 1-2 count to Schoop, who hammers it down the left-field line for a double. It’s the first time Giolito has to deal with a runner on second, and his pace drops to “deliberate” over the next two batters. Giolito’s pitch count leap-frogs Buehrle’s. As for pace of play, invoke the mercy rule.

Breakdown: Eighth Inning

Mark BuehrleLucas Giolito
BatterPitTimeBatterPitTime
B’quist10:08Arraez51:32
Wilson31:17Schoop53:45
Valdez52:37Castro35:38
Cave79:33
Total9427:10Total10044:42

Ninth Inning

Mark Buehrle: Ichiro ruins everything. He was the only one to get in the way of a Buehrle no-hitter, as all of Seattle’s hits belong to him. His third of the afternoon is an unimpressive grounder that sneaks inside first base and past a flopping Paul Konerko for a leadoff triple. Suzuki ends up scoring two batters when Konerko’s flop is good enough to stop a Beltre grounder, cutting the lead to 2-1 on the RBI groundout.

(Buehrle showed up prominently on Daren Willman’s map of pitchers Suzuki victimized, batting .409 with 29 hits over his career. In this particular three-year stretch, Suzuki went 12-for-19 off Buehrle.)

Even though the tying run comes to the plate three times and Buehrle’s pitch count eclipses 100, neither Ozzie Guillen nor Don Cooper nor Widger even think about visiting the mound at any point during the afternoon. Buehrle rewards their trust, closing out the afternoon by fanning Boone.

Buehrle finishes his day with 12 strikeouts, setting a career high that he never matched over the final 351 starts of his career. It’s also the only time he struck out double-digits while wearing a White Sox uniform.

Lucas Giolito: Even though his pitch count hit 100 the last inning, Giolito is able to finish the shutout with a 1-2-3 inning. He strikes out Kepler with his 106th pitch to match Buehrle’s count at 47 minutes and 6 seconds, but he still has two batters to go. Polanco does him a solid with a first-pitch popout, which makes the final eight-pitch battle with Cruz easier to negotiate.

On a 2-2 count to Cruz, Giolito tries to surprise him with his first curve of the game, which is only his 112th pitch. Cruz is surprised, but manages to check his swing, to Giolito’s amused chagrin.

With the count full, Giolito tries a fastball. Cruz fouls it off. Giolito then tries a slider. Cruz fouls it off. Finally, Giolito floats a changeup high … but high enough for Cruz to swing under it for the final out.

Perhaps Giolito outdid Buehrle with the shutout, but he had to work a lot harder for it. By the time Giolito heads off the mound for the final time on the afternoon, Buehrle’s been sitting in the dugout for over 20 minutes. 

Breakdown: Ninth Inning

Mark BuehrleLucas Giolito
BatterPitTimeBatterPitTime
Suzuki20:24Kepler62:24
Winn31:40Polanco13:09
Beltre42:52Cruz87:01
Boone33:55
Total10631:05Total11551:43

If Buehrle had a rangier first baseman, he might have worked less than a half-hour. Then again, if Buehrle had a rangier first baseman, this game might’ve gone into extra innings and lost the signature of a double-digit minute total. Then it would have just become another one of Buehrle’s many ultra-quick games, rather than an event that the White Sox marked by making him hold a clock for a camera.

Even with the extra 65 seconds, it’s a startling gap. Giolito passed the 31:05 mark after his first batter of the seventh inning, at which point he had only thrown 74 pitches. Buehrle crammed 32 more pitches into the same amount of time. 


This study isn’t a personal attack on Giolito. Relative to the league, he’s no Steve Trachsel, who overlapped with Buehrle and was notorious for his snail-like nature. In terms of his pace in 2019, Giolito was Every MLB Pitcher. Buehrle never could claim the same, by velocity or defense or especially rapidity. As his career recedes further from recent memory, his style will be even harder to conceive. The uninitiated won’t be able to fathom his “fast.”

It’s not entirely on the pitcher. Batters move slower, and so do catchers, who have to run through increasingly complicated signs thanks to teams like the Astros. Chris Sale, a guy who professes to prefer working fast, saw his pace drop from 19 seconds to 21 seconds to 23 seconds over the last several years.

And even what’s on the pitcher is a product of the times. Buehrle ended his delivery square to the plate, which made it simple to retrace his steps to the rubber while the catcher returned the ball. His elite command allowed him to give into his velocity loss instead of thrashing against it, and the lack of strain allowed him to follow through into a good fielding position, which had more importance back then.

After releasing a pitch, Buehrle only had to take a few steps back to throw the next one. (John Cordes/Icon Sportswire)

Modern pitchers fall off to the side more, a consequence of mechanical progress that’s covered by defensive shifts. A pitcher isn’t punished nearly as frequently for leaving the middle open, because an infielder is often positioned right behind him. The single that Jermaine Dye shoved through the middle against Brad Lidge for the World Series-winning run in 2005 probably gets trapped by the second baseman in 2019.

You can try to tell a pitcher to be like Buehrle, but pitchers said they couldn’t keep up even six years ago, and now it’d probably make most of them way worse. After all the work Giolito did to wrangle his mechanics into a form that garnered some Cy Young support, nobody should ask for more.

This is a long way of saying that you’ll never see another Buehrle, and that’s worth considering as he hits the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time later this year. He’ll probably struggle to clear 5 percent because the electorate wants a peak with its longevity, and Buehrle peers like Roy Halladay and CC Sabathia had a more impressive combination of the two. Tim Hudson will be joining Buehrle on the ballot, and few will clamor for him.

Still, I’d argue that Buehrle’s style is worth some support, especially since it’s the immaculate example of pace of play that baseball will never be able to recapture. It doesn’t show up in many popular, accessible numbers, but “99 minutes” is one of them. If the rest can’t quite capture his essence, that’s why the plaques have words.

Take a second to support Sox Machine on Patreon
21 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
BuehrleMan

first favorite buehrle game that immediately comes to mind (not including the perfect game and no hitter) would be opening day, april 4, 2005. I don’t remember any clouds in the sky and it felt even warmer than the 64 degrees baseball-reference says it was.1-0 win at home against cleveland. buehrle went 8 innings and gave up two hits and a walk. two 5-4-3 double plays meant he faced one batter over the minimum. shingo closed out the ninth. game time: 1 hour 51 minutes.

It was a 2 o’clock start and we were back sitting at the end of the bar in champaign with about 45 minutes to spare before illinois played north carolina in the ncaa final.

MarketMaker

I’d have bet money you’d comment on this post.

BuehrleMan

hey there, MM! you do know that i hate to disappoint people.

boy what a sweet racket it would be if you could have actually bet on that. we could make a deal in advance and split the proceeds.

RWShow

It sounds silly to say it now, but I really do remember that day feeling like a particularly special opening day. There was something in the air at the park that day.

Shingos Cheeseburgers

Well this was just delightful and was particularly enhanced by the new look & layout, kudos! I love analyses like this that break the game down into its atomic parts. Although the employment of that particular Giolito game is particularly hurtful for me since it was the only Sox game at Target Field I missed last year.

A couple years ago Grant Bisbee did a similar analysis on a full game basis here:
https://www.sbnation.com/a/mlb-2017-season-preview/game-length
The running clocks on the side is particularly interesting.

BuehrleMan

speaking of roy halladay.

Mr. Halladay had 10 times the generally recommended level of amphetamine in his system, as well as an antidepressant, a muscle relaxant, a sleep aid and morphine, an opioid pain medication, when he lost control of his plane and crashed nose-first into the water.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/us/roy-halladay-death-amphetamines.html

holy christ. very lucky he didn’t take anyone with him. not quite sure i understand how he was allowed into a cockpit.

andyfaust

Not to make light of the man’s death, but this begs the question, “What is the generally recommended level of amphetamine, assuming a 2000 calorie/day diet?” And no, I didn’t read the NYT link for context.

Patrick Nolan

I was at this game. Our dorm chartered a bus for everyone to ride in for the game. Because it ended so shockingly early, the driver was glad to drive everyone to Michigan Avenue to hang out for a couple hours (presumably to look at stuff no one could afford).

asinwreck

Had Harry Caray still been alive and a Sox broadcaster, he could have logged eight hours on Rush Street after that game.

andyfaust

This is why Buehrle is my all time favorite Sox player. This is a great analysis Jim, and I wish it was required reading for all HOF voters. If they simply go to his baseball-reference page and give it a quick scan, the question of if he is a hall of famer, would be answered with a nearly instantaneous “no”. But if they actually watched some of these potential “podium games” as you put it, I think the answer becomes much more contemplative, and that’s all I want. I would like it to be widely recognized how extremely unique and rare he was (and fun & awesome).

asinwreck

That Buehrle logged two of his most-loved games a few weeks after we were all worried he’d miss the season opener with a broken foot was a sign 2005 would be a charmed season.

Eloytes

Great post, Jim. Hope Gio can give it a read.

I could be completely wrong, but wondering if the relatively recent emphasis on pitch framing contributes to dragging the pace of play down. Watching these old ’05 games lately, seems like the ball was back in the pitcher’s glove a lot faster than your average these days. I could be wrong, though.

I don’t get to many games, but I was there for this Buehrle game. It felt like the game was over before our seats got warm.

I remember a rain shortened Giolito start last year where he started working really quickly and it was very effective. I’d like to see him try it again.

MarketMaker

I seem to recall a handful of sub-2 hour games with MB and Jarrod Washburn.

Ted Mulvey

That’s store-brand Buehrle and former-UW-Oshkosh grad Jarrod Washburn, thankyouverymuch! A bit before Josh’s time as an undergrad, though, and well before my time as an employee.

Steve

UW Zero?

MarketMaker

Buehrle was so unique. It was as if he’d grown up playing baseball in another country or something. Just seemed to do everything a little bit different. Perhaps because he’s a lefty.

AshnodsCoupon

My mom and my brother were at this one. I still remember when they got back and Dad and I were like “aren’t you supposed to be at the game?”