Chicago White Sox Baseball Team

Mark Buehrle continued his rebound season in historic fashion Wednesday night, pitching the 16th no-hitter in Chicago White Sox history and the major leagues' first of 2007 in a 6-0 blanking of the Texas Rangers. Buehrle delighted a cold but enthusiastic crowd of 25,390, which watched him throw the first no-hitter at U.S. Cellular Field. Only one Texas batter reached base -- Sammy Sosa on a fifth-inning walk -- and Buehrle promptly picked him off first base.

Mark Buehrle is staying with the Chicago White Sox. The left-hander agreed to a four-year, $56-million deal Sunday, ending weeks of trade speculation. The crowd at Sunday's game was told over the public address system that Buehrle had signed as the White Sox left the field after a 6-3 win over the Minnesota Twins. In the eighth inning, Buehrle was seen in the dugout hugging Manager Ozzie Guillen and his teammates. "Knowing that he's going to be here takes a load off everyone. What a happy day.

Michael Barrett was waiting for the ball when A.J. Pierzynski ran him over. Barrett's reaction? He got up and punched the White Sox catcher in the jaw, setting off a melee between Chicago's two baseball teams. "I don't know how to say it. I mean, when you hit another grown man, it's never right, you know," the Cubs' Barrett said Saturday after the White Sox won, 7-0, behind two homers and six runs batted in from Tadahito Iguchi.

This was one pitch on which the Chicago White Sox weren't going to whiff. The club confirmed Wednesday that "play ball" will sound at precisely 7:11 p.m. for weeknight home games next season in a promotional deal with convenience store chain 7-Eleven. "In baseball, you want to have the financial resources to put the best possible resources on the field," said Brooks Boyer, the team's vice president of marketing. "This allows us to do that."

A four-homer game is rare for the Angels, who rank 10th in the American League in home runs; a sweep of the Chicago White Sox in U.S. Cellular Field is even more rare, and a 50-stolen-base season by an Angel is downright scarce.

RED SOX'S PROJECTED LINEUP ANALYSIS *--* P Player Avg HR RBI CF Johnny Damon 316 10 75 SS Edgar Renteria 276 8 70 DH David Ortiz 300 47 148 LF Manny Ramirez 292 45 144 RF Trot Nixon 275 13 67 C Jason Varitek 281 22 70 1B John Olerud 289 7 37 3B Bill Mueller 295 10 62 2B Tony Graffanino 309 7 38 *--* * Strengths: The Red Sox scored 910 runs, 169 more than the White Sox.

Two years ago, they cowboyed up and lost. Last season, they were idiots and won. So, Kevin Millar, posse coordinator, leader of dolts, any bright ideas for these playoffs? "It has been a season without a big-league theme," the Boston Red Sox's part-time first baseman and full-time hair-color adjuster admitted. "Hopefully, we can have a 'repeat' theme." All right, then; "Manny being Manny" it is. The rest of them can be Manny too, and see how many find their way to the team bus this morning.

For a moment, anyway, life was a bowl of alphabet soup for Ozzie Guillen. He was enraged about the criticism he heard on one of those ESPN shout-a-thons. Which one? The one with the letters. Which letters? "PIT, TPI, whatever," Guillen said. This was Friday, the day after the Chicago White Sox had clinched the American League Central championship.

There was a moment in the third inning Tuesday afternoon when the people in the stands, going on 50 years since they witnessed a home postseason win by the Chicago White Sox, chanted and applauded and demanded that Paul Konerko wave back. So Konerko climbed the stairs, turned and acknowledged their recognition of his home run, their wait, and their relief. Several innings later, Konerko said he leaned toward a teammate and confessed, "I felt real good about that curtain call. It felt great.

Back to Fenway Park, where, if the local guys are going to go on about their backs being against the wall, at least it's big and green and friendly. The widely held view here is the Boston Red Sox have played themselves into a familiar place; they have lost the first two games of a best-of-five American League division series to the Chicago White Sox, and in their best scenario have a weekend of elimination games ahead. In their worst, they have only one, tonight's.