Bob Cook

It looks like Mark Buehrle might be worth Barry Zito money after all.

Buehrle’s no-hitter Wednesday night in a 6-0 Chicago White Sox win against Texas is further evidence, following a strong start at Oakland last week, that the 2005 World Series pitching hero (got a win, and got a save) is returning to form after a disastrous 2006.

And just in time, too. Buehrle is a free agent this offseason, and if he can be the pitcher he was the first four years of his career, the left-hander surely will be able to get a significant raise from his current $9.5 million salary. If Gil Meche and Ted Lilly can make more than $10 million a year, then one of the most consistently reliable starters of the decade, one who only just turned 28, certainly can command a long-term, Zito-like $15-17 million a year deal. Maybe slightly less if the Missouri native’s boyhood favorite, the St. Louis Cardinals, sign him.

Buehrle’s revival isn’t just a salary push, though. Buehrle does not exhibit the greatness of a Johan Santana, but he is at the top rung of those pitchers who exhibit very-goodness. Buehrle’s lousy 2006 was an aberration, brought on by a post-World Series hangover, an inability to finesse the plate, and perhaps disappointment that general manager Kenny Williams told him to stop sliding on tarps during rain delays.

What makes Buehrle very good, and sometimes great, was evident Wednesday at U.S. Cellular Field, which hosted its first no-hitter since it opened in 1990.

Buehrle’s curveballs curved, his sinkers sunk, his cut fastballs cut, and his changeups froze batters because they weren’t used to seeing pitches that weren’t darting all over the place. The man who Chicago Sun-Times columnist, White Sox fan and Roger Ebert sidekick Richard Roeper described as pitching “as if he’s late for dinner” got the game over with in two hours and three minutes, and it wouldn’t have taken nearly that long if the White Sox offense hadn’t broken out of its own funk to score so many runs.

Other parts of Wednesday’s game showed the best of Buehrle. He struck out eight batters – a lot for him — but otherwise relied on his infielders to make outs, such as Joe Crede nipping a face-first sliding Jerry Hairston Jr. by a fingertip on his grounder to third base in the third inning.

Buehrle isn’t so political about it, but he follows the tenet of a past left-hander, Bill Lee, who once observed that strikeouts were “fascist” and ground balls more democratic, because then everyone can get involved. Then again, you’re not going to blow people away with power when, on the night of your no-hitter, you don’t throw a pitch faster than 90 mph. “Obviously, for a guy like me, I need my defense behind me,” a Virginia Tech-cap wearing Buehrle said after the game.

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Buehrle faced the minimum of batters after picking Sammy Sosa off first base in the fifth inning following a walk. Sosa must have forgotten, in his year out of the game, that Buehrle has one of the best pickoff moves in baseball, so much so that barely anyone tries to run on him. In 2006, Buehrle gave up only four stolen bases in 11 attempts, with Santana and Baltimore’s Erik Bedard the only other starters to give up as few steals.

Buehrle’s pickoff move was among the few things that went right last year. After going 81-52 with a 3.61 ERA in his first four seasons as a full-time starter, Buehrle sunk to 12-13 with a 4.99 ERA in 2006 — his worst ERA ever, and his first season with a losing record. Buehrle’s curves didn’t curve, his sinkers didn’t sink, his cutters didn’t cut, and his changeup didn’t look any different than his other pitches, which were either flat, fat slowballs, or hanging, fat slowballs.

In his career, Buehrle has always been among the league leaders in hits allowed, but never had he given up so many hits (247) in so few innings (204). He often made up for his base-clogging, as Dusty Baker might call it, by inducing double plays, but he went from his usual 35 per year to 24. Plus, his home run total skyrocketed, from 20 in 2005 to 36 in 2006.

Buehrle’s problems were particularly acute in the first inning, in which his ERA was 9.56. This is what happened when things went well: on May 15, 2006, against Minnesota, Buehrle gave up seven first-inning runs. But the White Sox scored 10 runs while still pitched to give him the win, making Buehrle the first pitcher in 106 years to give up more than seven first-inning runs and earn the win.