Sox' Buehrle just perfect again ... for a while

Don't blame Mark Buehrle for the White Sox' latest loss to the Twins at the Metrodome.

The White Sox' ace left-handed starting pitcher followed up Thursday's perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays by making a strong run at something beyond baseball immortality against Minnesota.

Buehrle was perfect for 5 2/3 innings against the Twins, and when he retired former teammate Joe Crede in the fifth, the 30-year-old pitcher set a major-league record with 42 outs in a row, blowing past teammate Bobby Jenks and Jim Barr, who were tied at 41.

Buehrle extended the streak to 45, but he walked Alexi Casilla with two outs in the sixth inning to lose the perfect game, and Denard Span followed with a clean single to center field to end the no-hit bid.

The Sox unraveled from there - thanks to some more sloppy defense - and fell to Minnesota 5-3. They've lost 10 of their last 12 at the Metrodome.

Afterward, Buehrle (11-4) didn't sound too thrilled about setting a major-league record and flirting with another perfect game.

"It's just frustrating after a loss," Buehrle told reporters. "It might mean more tomorrow or the next day once I cool off. But I'm not too happy right now."

The White Sox (51-50) are 1-5 since Buehrle's perfect game, and they've dropped into a second-place tie with the Twins in the AL Central, 2 game behind the Detroit Tigers.

With Casilla and Span on base in the sixth, Joe Mauer hit a flyball to left field and Scott Podsednik was positioned to make the catch. Podsednik wasn't able to come up with the ball, and Mauer's ground-rule double tied the game at 1-1.

In the seventh inning, Twins leadoff man Michael Cuddyer was hit by a pitch, and Joe Crede followed with a groundball that looked like a sure double play. But Chris Getz, the White Sox' rookie second baseman, inexplicably broke to his right, and the grounder went through for a single.

After that, Carlos Gomez sacrificed Cuddyer and Crede up a base and Nick Punto ended Buehrle's night with a 2-run bloop single. Buehrle tipped his cap to the normally hostile crowd as he received a standing ovation.

"It's just one of those things where you kind of appreciate and sit back and realize how hard it is to throw a no-hitter or a perfect game," Buehrle said. "Because you see today that I made some good pitches and they put them in play and got basehits off them. It's just frustrating."

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