Mark Buehrle: AL pitcher of the month

Ok, the Award hasn't been announced yet, and it probably won't be until sometime around the All-Star game, but Mark Buehrle staked his claim to the Award Tuesday night. Here are his numbers for the month of June.

You can't get much better than that. It's a crime that he didn't get more victories out of that stretch. Cliff Politte is 3-0 in June with a 0.00 ERA, so I guess Buehrle might have competition after all.

Just how dominant has Buehrle been? Tuesday was the worst he has looked in recent memory. And he still pitched into the 7th inning for the 44th straight time, allowing just 1 earned run on 8 hits and no walks.

• Mark looked completely un-Buehrle-like. (Yeah I made up my own word.) He was having trouble locating his pitches, specifically missing up in the zone and away to righthanders. He even seemed to take a little more time between pitches. -- Maybe he was searching for the answer between throws -- It got so bad that pitching coach Don Cooper made a visit to the mound to have a chat with him after Buehrle had thrown 2 straight balls to Dmitri Young.

• Speaking of Young, he is now 0-19 against the White Sox this season. I guess he's saving himself for the Indians.

• For the third straight game, the Sox offense looked anemic. Thankfully, Buehrle, Politte, & Hermanson (now there's a law firm name if I've ever heard one) had the Tiggers bats on lock down. Scott Podsednik took a break from making Nate Robertson look like Cy Young to sacrifice fly in Juan Uribe, who had tripled earlier in the inning. Jermaine Dye came through with a big HR to put the Sox up. Other than that, Iguchi and and Aaron Rowand added two meaningless hits each.

• Robertson took full advantage of the generous calls on the inside part of the plate to righthanders all night long. Frank Thomas was the first caught looking of the evening in the first inning, and there were many more to come. Frank was again a victim in his second at bat. This time, however, he wasn't even in the batters box. Frank had called for time, but was not granted it, and was wrung up on Robertson's offering while he was looking at the ump.

• This is another reason why I say Buehrle wasn't himself out there Tuesday. Mark is a keen observer of the strike zone. He plays to the zone that is being called on any given night. But last night, he showed no ability to routinely hit the inside corner, nor did it look like he was even trying.