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Well, I guess this means the White Sox are going to be in first place the entire 2010 season and win the World Series.  Just like 2005, Mark Buehrle faced off against Cleveland's Jake Westbrook and shut out the Indians on Opening Day.  Is that optimistic enough for those of you who hated yesterday's post because I'm not drinking the small-ball Kool Aid that Ozzie "Jim Jones" Guillen is serving?  The Mark of Zero proved true to his name, blanking the Tribe for seven innings, giving up only three hits and a walk, and striking out three, while finding the strike zone 63 times in 95 pitches

Buehrle also proved he deserved the Gold Glove he won last year by making one of the most incredible plays I've ever seen.  After deflecting a hard-hit ball off his left shin (like a hockey goalie), Buehrle chased the ball to the first base line, narrowly avoided a collision with the baserunner, used his glove to flip it backwards between his legs (like a football center) to nip the runner, and tumbled to the ground.  Mere words don't do it justice, so take a look at the video -- it's worth putting up with the commercial that precedes it.

The bullpen didn't let Buehrle's heroics go for naught, instead giving up naught to the Indians.  J.J. Putz didn't pitch like one (okay, I got that one out of the way early in the season), allowing no runs on one hit.  Matt Thornton was even better, throwing 10 pitches, all of them for strikes, yielding two Ks on his way to a three up-three down inning.

On the offensive side, the Sox weren't.  Oh, sure, everyone's favorite leadoff man, Juan Pierre, was 0 for 4 with a strikeout; the rotating DH experiment largely failed as Mark Kotsay and Andruw Jones were a combined 0 for 3 with a walk and one run batted in, which shouldn't even count as a RBI since it came on a double play; Mark Teahen and notoriously slow starter Alexei Ramirez took the collar -- but there was a lot to like.  Gordon Beckham singled, doubled, had a RBI, and scored a run (and looked decent turning a double play).  Paul Konerko homered to right in the first inning, also driving in Carlos Quentin with what proved to be the winning run, and drew two walks.  Q was on base with a double and also two other times after being hit by a pitch.  Hey, try getting out of the way -- it's a long season and we need you in the lineup.  Alex Rios also dialed 8 for long distance, homering in the eighth inning (and made a diving catch to end the game).  And A.J. Pierzynski singled (and called a brilliant game).

Small ball update: Teahen was caught stealing to end an inning..  Now, it's not unprecedented for him to be running or for him to be thrown out.  Prior to yesterday, Teahen was 42 for 54 in stolen base attempts.  Not as good as the 27 for 30 record of Chris Getz -- the man he essentially replaced in the Sox infield -- but not so bad that he should never attempt to steal.

In other Sox news, President Obama threw out the first ball at the Nats game yesterday.  He was wearing a Nats' warmup jacket, but pulled out his Sox cap when he got to the mound -- to a rousing chorus of boos.  The pitch was high and inside to the invisible lefty batter, but no worse than those thrown by the Nats pitchers who followed the POTUS and gave up 11 runs.  Maybe it's a good thing that work made me miss my first opener since baseball (so to speak) returned to D.C.  Go Sox!