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The Chicago Cubs' Starlin Castro is in his age-22 season and already has accumulated more than 1,000 plate appearances. He also continues to improve, raising his batting average each season: .300 in 2010, .307 in 2011, .347 in 2012.

That sort of ability to put the bat on the ball is legitimately rare in baseball history. Among shortstops, Castro’s .308 lifetime batting average is the third highest through an age-22 season (see chart).

Castro is steadily improving his recognition of off-speed pitches. Across the board, his performance has improved against changeups, sliders and curveballs. Castro has a tremendously high batting average on balls in play against such pitches (.453) and leads all of baseball with a .393 batting average on off-speed pitches.

Also, his strikeout rate on off-speed pitches has decreased each season (from 20.1 percent in 2010 to 14.5 this season), and his OPS has increased from .699 in his rookie season to .895 in 2012.

While Castro’s future was already assured in Chicago, first baseman Bryan LaHair may have found a team to stick with, as well.

A 29-year-old minor league veteran, LaHair finally is getting a chance to play every day and is taking full advantage of it.

LaHair is absolutely destroying pitches on the outer half of the plate, leading all of baseball in both batting average (.436) and OPS (1.327) against such pitches.

On Wednesday, LaHair drove in the only run of the game on a pitch that was on the outside half of the plate.

When the Chicago White Sox acquired Jake Peavy toward the end of the 2009 season, they anticipated they were getting a Cy Young-caliber pitcher.

Turns out, they had to wait three years for that to happen.

In his seventh start this year, Peavy held the Cleveland Indians to one run in seven innings of work, improving to 4-1 this season with a 1.89 ERA.

His fast start is comparable to the one he had during his Cy Young Award-winning season in 2007, when he also started 4-1, with an even-lower 1.75 ERA.

But the 2012 version of Peavy is much different than in past seasons.

In 2007, Peavy's fastball averaged 93.9 mph. This season? 91.0 mph. In fact, his fastest pitch all season topped out at 93.5 mph.

To make up for a decline in velocity, Peavy has exercised control. Among American League starting pitchers, Peavy's strikeout-to-walk ratio of 6.29 is tops. Peavy's never finished a season with a strikeout-walk ratio higher than 4.32 (2005).

On Wednesday, Peavy got the Indians out of character, getting them to expand their strike zone, something they’ve done less often than any team in baseball this season.

The Indians swung at 23 of Peavy’s 56 pitches out of the zone (41 percent), their highest chase percentage against any starter this season. This season, the Indians have the lowest chase percentage in baseball (21.7 percent).

NEW YORK MINUTE
• With a hit in his first at-bat Wednesday, Derek Jeter became the first player in New York Yankees history with at least 50 hits in the team’s first 30 games of a season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Looking way ahead, if Jeter plays 148 games this season, at his current pace, he would finish this season with 197 hits. That would give him 3,285 career hits, which would put him two past Willie Mays for 11th on the all-time list.

If he maintained a 197-hit season pace, Jeter would get his 4,000th career hit sometime around the All-Star break of the 2016 season. He still would not pass Pete Rose on the all-time hits list until sometime toward the end of the 2017 season, when he'd be 43 years old and would end that season with 4,270 hits. Rose has 4,256 career hits.

• The New York Mets swept the Philadelphia Phillies on the road and they trailed in each of the three games. It's only the third time in franchise history the Mets won a road series of three or more games despite trailing in each of those games, according to Elias.

The others were in July 1986 at Cincinnati (3-0) and August-September 1987 at San Diego (3-0).

Stats & Info insights into this morning's top sports stories.

1. HAMILTON MAKES HISTORY: Josh Hamilton became the 16th player in MLB history to hit four home runs in a single game on Tuesday night in Baltimore. He is the sixth player in American League history to do it, and the first since Carlos Delgado in 2003.

2. VERY RARE OCCASION: This is the first time in major league history that a pitcher has thrown a perfect game and a hitter has hit four home runs in a game in the same season. Philip Humber of the Chicago White Sox threw a perfect game earlier this season.

3. ANOTHER RECORD FOR HAMILTON: Hamilton's 18 total bases are an AL record, one shy of Shawn Green's MLB record of 19 in his four-homer game on May 23, 2002. The previous AL record was 16, done eight times.

4. COLLISON HELPS PACERS ADVANCE: The Indiana Pacers advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals with a win over the Orlando Magic. It is Indiana's first series win since the First Round in 2005 versus the Boston Celtics. FROM ELIAS: Darren Collison (23 assists, one turnover in series) is the first player in 22 years to have at least 20 assists and one or fewer turnovers in a playoff series. John Paxson did it for the Chicago Bulls in 1990.

5. THREE NBA TEAMS STILL FIGHTING: The Pacers were able to advance, but the Los Angeles Lakers, Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers were unable to close out their respective series, as each team lost its Game Five and must play on in the First Round. FROM ELIAS: This is the first time three teams avoided elimination on the same day since April 30, 2003. The Detroit Pistons, New Orleans Hornets and Portland Trail Blazers all won Game Fives on that date - only the Pistons used the momentum to come back to win the series (beat Magic in seven games).

6. DEVILS ADVANCE DESPITE ODD TREND: FROM ELIAS: The New Jersey Devils lost the opener of their conference semifinal series against the Philadelphia Flyers, then won the next four games. Even though Philadelphia scored the first goal in each game, New Jersey is the fourth team in NHL history to win four games in which their opponent scored the first goal in one series. Also, the Devils are the first team to do that in four consecutive games in one series. The other clubs with four such wins one series were the 1956 Detroit Red Wings (vs Toronto Maple Leafs), 1991 Edmonton Oilers (vs Calgary Flames) and 1995 Red Wings (vs Chicago Blackhawks).

In 2011, everything went wrong for Adam Dunn.

After spending his first 10 seasons in the National League, Dunn signed with the Chicago White Sox in 2011 and posted one of the worst seasons in major-league history.

Dunn hit .159 in 2011 and struck out a franchise-record 177 times. His average was the lowest in MLB since 1900 among hitters with at least 450 plate-appearances. (His average is not the lowest in history because Dunn was six plate appearances shy of qualifying.)

Dunn also hit 11 home runs and drove in 42, both career lows.

So far in 2012, he’s looked very much like the Dunn of old.

Overall, he is not swinging appreciably more, has not cut down on his strikeouts, increased his walks, or decreased the rate at which he’s chasing pitches outside of the zone.

Rather, it appears he’s simply doing more when he does make contact. Dunn’s Home Run-to-Fly Ball rate is 28 percent, which ranks tied for fourth in MLB. Last season that rate was 10 percent.

Entering play on Tuesday, Dunn is tied for third in all of baseball with nine home runs.

His home run rate is at 9.0 percent, more than three times what it was last season (2.7).

Dunn -- who did not hit a HR in his final 28 games of 2011 -- didn’t hit his ninth home run of the season last year until July 8.

In terms of specific pitches, Dunn’s greatest improvement has come against fastballs. He hit .182 with eight home runs against fastballs last season. In 2012, Dunn already has eight HR off fastballs and is hitting .288.

Part of the uptick can be explained by an increase in his batting average on balls in play against fastballs, cutters and sinkers. It was .245 last season (244th out of 254 players who saw at least 750 fastballs/cutters/sinkers). This season, it's .273.

Jordany Valdespin's first career hit couldn't have come at a better time. With the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies tied at two in the top of the ninth inning, Valdespin golfed a splitter from Jonathan Papelbon over the fence, snapping a streak of six straight hitless at-bats to begin his MLB career.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Valdespin is the first player whose first career hit was a go-ahead HR in the ninth inning or later since Miguel Cabrera on June 20, 2003. He's the first player to record his first career hit via a pinch-hit go-ahead HR in the ninth inning or later since Steve Sisco for the Atlanta Braves on May 13, 2000 (also against the Phillies). While Cabrera has gone on to hit more than 280 HR in the majors, Sisco's HR was the only one of his short MLB career.

Papelbon earned his first loss as a member of the Phillies and allowed at least three runs in a game for the first time since June 4 of last year. Papelbon had good reason to think that Valdespin wouldn't be able to do much with the splitter that ended up in the bleachers. Entering Monday, opponents were just 2-13 (.154) against Papelbon's split-finger fastball this season.

Roy Halladay's streak of eight straight wins against the Mets came to an end after he allowed two runs on five hits over seven innings. After winning his first three starts of 2012, the Phillies have now lost four straight starts by Halladay for the first time since he came to Philadelphia in 2010. Halladay has a 5.13 ERA in those games after having a 1.17 ERA in his first three starts of the season.

Elsewhere in the majors on Monday:

• Philip Humber struggled for a third straight start, allowing eight runs and failing to reach the fourth inning as the Chicago White Sox fell to the Cleveland Indians 8-6. Since throwing the 21st perfect game in MLB history on April 21, Humber is now 0-2 with a 13.50 ERA in his last three starts. According to Elias, Humber's 20 runs allowed in that span are the most by any pitcher in his first three starts after a perfect game since 1900.

• Brandon Snyder, who entered Monday with five total RBI in 27 career games, drove in a game-high six runs in the Texas Rangers 14-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Snyder became the first player to drive in at least six runs from the eighth spot in the order since Jorge Posada on August 13 last season.

• The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 11-5, improving to 12-16 on the season. Despite their subpar record, Monday was the MLB-leading eighth time the Red Sox scored 10 or more runs in a game this season. Baseball-reference.com tells us Boston is the fourth team to score 10 or more runs eight times in its first 28 games of a season in the live-ball era (since 1920), joining the 1997 Rockies, 1950 Yankees and 1928 Athletics.

It took a great pitching performance from Chicago White Sox starter Gavin Floyd to end the Boston Red Sox six-game winning streak.

Sunday marked the fourth time in Floyd’s career that he carried a no-hit bid into the seventh inning, but he’s yet to finish one off. The Elias Sports Bureau notes that Floyd’s four such bids are the third-most among active pitchers.

How did Floyd pitch so well?

Our pitch-performance data showed that he got five of his nine strikeouts on pitches that were out of the strike zone. He finished off all 15 hitters on whom he got a two-strike count.

Floyd’s curveball was working in those two-strike counts. He threw 11 curveballs in two-strike situations and got five strikeouts with them.

The White Sox were bidding to become the first team with two regular-season no-hitters in the same season since the 1973 Angels, who got two from Nolan Ryan. The 2010 Phillies are the last team with two no-hitters, if you combine regular season and postseason (both by Roy Halladay).

Floyd is 7-0 with a 2.75 ERA in eight career starts against the Red Sox. He’s the first pitcher to win his first seven career decisions against the Red Sox since former Minnesota Twins right-hander Kevin Tapani.

Other notable performances from Sunday included:

The day’s best pitchers
Johan Santana threw six scoreless innings in his Coors Field debut, in the New York Mets wild win over the Colorado Rockies. Santana has now pitched 22 scoreless innings against the Rockies, which (via Elias) is the longest streak by any pitcher to start his career.

CC Sabathia beat the Tigers to remain undefeated this season. The Tigers right-handed hitters were 1-for-21 against him. Sabathia got five strikeouts with his slider. He’s had at least five with that pitch in all five of his starts this season.

Speaking of sliders, Chicago Cubs starter Matt Garza got 10 outs with his, and notched six strikeouts with the pitch, in a 5-1 win over the Phillies.

Also chiming in with impressive efforts were Arizona Diamondbacks starter Wade Miley, who is 6-1 with a 2.47 ERA in his last eight starts dating back to last season after beating the Diamondbacks, and Cleveland Indians starter Derek Lowe, who beat the Los Angels of Anaheim with an efficient effort- he threw single-digit pitch totals in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings.

The day’s best hitter
Rightfielder Jay Bruce homered for the fourth straight game, the longest streak by a Cincinnati Reds player since Adam Dunn homered in five straight games in May, 2008.
The streaky Bruce has had another hot week, hitting .476 with an OPS of 1.685 since Tuesday. His last three home runs have come on pitches over the outer-third of the plate. Bruce has 40 home runs on outer-third pitches since 2009, sixth-most in the majors in that span.

Stats & Info insights into this morning's top sports stories.

1. HUMBER SIMPLY PERFECT: Chicago White Sox pitcher Philip Humber became the 21st pitcher to throw a perfect game in MLB history. FROM ELIAS: Entering Saturday’s game, Humber had 11 wins in 29 starts. That is the third-fewest starts and second-fewest wins prior to a perfect game in MLB history.

2. YANKEES MAKE IMPROBABLE COMEBACK: The New York Yankees trailed 9-0 against the Boston Red Sox before scoring 15 unanswered runs in a 15-9 win. FROM ELIAS: It is the second time in the modern era that a team trailed by at least nine runs and ended up winning the game by at least six runs. On June 12, 1938 the Detroit Tigers trailed the Washington Senators, 11-1, but rallied to win, 18-12, on the strength of a seven-run ninth inning.

3. BLACKHAWKS FORCE GAME 6: The Chicago Blackhawks stayed alive, winning 3-2 in overtime against the Phoenix Coyotes. The Blackhawks have played in seven consecutive overtime games, the longest streak in NHL playoff history. FROM ELIAS: This is the second playoff series in NHL history in which each of the first 5 games went into overtime. The other was the 1951 Finals when the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs went to OT in all five games.

4. ANDERSON BLANKS RANGERS: Craig Anderson made 41 saves to lead the Ottawa Senators to a 2–0 win at Madison Square Garden in Game 5 of their series against the New York Rangers. FROM ELIAS: Anderson was the first NHL goaltender to make at least 40 saves in a road shutout in the playoffs since Ed Belfour of the Dallas Stars made 48 stops in a 1–0 triple-overtime win at New Jersey in Game 5 of the 2000 Stanley Cup Final. Before Anderson, the last goaltender to do that in a road playoff game that did not go to overtime was Toronto’s Felix Potvin with a 42-save, 3–0 shutout at Chicago in 1995.

5. RONALDO SETS RECORD: Cristiano Ronaldo scored the game-winning goal in Real Madrid’s 2-1 win over Barcelona. It was Ronaldo’s 42nd goal of the season, setting the record for most goals scored in a season in La Liga history.

6. BATTLE OF WESTERN POWERS: The Los Angeles Lakers host the Oklahoma City Thunder at 3:30 ET on ABC. That game will feature the top-2 scorers in the NBA. Kobe Bryant (27.9 PPG) leads Kevin Durant (27.8 PPG) by 0.1 PPG. Durant is trying to become the first player to win three consecutive scoring titles since Michael Jordan from 1996-98. The Lakers have two games remaining while the Thunder have three.

Philip Humber became the 21st pitcher in major-league history to toss a perfect game as the Chicago White Sox beat the Seattle Mariners 4-0 on Saturday afternoon.

It was the third perfect game in White Sox history. That ties the club with the New York Yankees with the most perfect games in MLB history. With Don Larsen throwing a perfect game in the World Series for the Yankees, the White Sox are the only franchise with three in the regular season.

Humber became the fourth pitcher to toss a perfect game in the last four seasons. Roy Halladay and Dallas Braden threw perfect games in 2010 after Mark Buehrle threw one for the White Sox in 2009.

It was the first complete game of his career, and he tied a career high with nine strikeouts.

In fact, Humber became one of the least experienced pitchers to toss a perfect game. This was his 30th start and 12th victory of his career. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, only one pitcher - Charlie Robertson in 1922 - had fewer wins and starts before retiring all 27 batters since 1900.

He recorded a game score of 96, the second-highest for the White Sox since the mound was lowered in 1969. Game score rates pitchers based on box score statistics, typically ranging from 0 to 100 with an average near 50.

Humber did not go to a three-ball count until the 9th inning. He was able to recover from both, striking out Michael Saunders and Brendan Ryan. His strikeout of Saunders was the first in Humber’s career after falling behind 3-0 in the count.

One key to Humber’s success was his slider. He threw 32 sliders against the Mariners, including 15 that ended at-bats with an out. Six of his nine strikeouts were on the slider, including both in the ninth inning. He induced batters to chase eight of 17 sliders outside the zone and miss on seven of 19 swings overall.

After throwing his slider on 5 of 37 pitches (14 percent) the first time through the order, he threw 27 on 59 pitches (46 percent) the rest of the game.

Around the Bases
• With Matt Harrison's win in the first game of their doubleheader, Texas Rangers starting pitchers improved to 10-0 this season. According to Elias, it is the first time in franchise history that their starters won their first 10 decisions. The last time it happened for any team was 2003, when the Yankees (16) and San Francisco Giants (10) each reached double figures.

• After blowing a three-run lead in the top of the 9th inning, the New York Mets won on a throwing error by Giants catcher Buster Posey. Elias confirms that it was the first win in Mets history in which the game ended on an error by the opposing catcher.

• The Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Ian Desmond. It was their third walk-off win of the season, tops in the majors.

Eight more teams had their home openers today and several of them gave the hometown fans plenty to cheer about with some spectacular pitching performances.

Cain is able
The San Francisco Giants shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-0, as Matt Cain threw a complete game one-hitter with no walks and 11 strikeouts for the win. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Cain is the only pitcher to throw a one-hitter in the team’s home opener in Giants franchise history.

The only hit Cain allowed was a single to Pirates pitcher James McDonald. Elias also tells us that Cain is the first pitcher since R.A. Dickey in 2010 to throw a 1-hitter in which the hit was allowed to the opposing pitcher. The last Giants pitcher to do it was Hal Schumacher in 1935.

Cain worked his fastball in the middle of the zone and above, throwing 48 of his 60 heaters there.

The Pirates couldn’t handle the high heat, with just one hit and four strikeouts in 14 at-bats ending with a fastball.

Of Cain's 11 strikeouts, eight were on pitches out of the zone. The Pirates swung and missed at 58 percent of Cain's pitches out of the zone.

Hello, Hiroki
The New York Yankees blanked the Los Angeles Angels, 5-0, winning for the 14th time in their last 15 home openers. Hiroki Kuroda shined in his Yankee Stadium debut, tossing eight scoreless innings to earn his first victory in pinstripes.

Kuroda is the fifth Yankee pitcher to throw eight shutout innings in his Yankee Stadium debut in the Divisional Era (since 1969) and the first to do it since Jimmy Key in 1993 against the Royals. Kuroda shut down the Angels right-handed bats, who were 2-for-14 with five strikeouts when facing Kuroda.

Beckett bounces back
The Boston Red Sox kicked off their home schedule with a much-needed victory, crushing the Tampa Bay Rays 12-2.

The Red Sox broke the game open with eight runs in the eighth inning, scoring as many runs in that frame as they had in their previous three games combined.

Josh Beckett allowed just one run in eight innings, bouncing back from his first start of the season when he allowed five home runs against the Tigers. Beckett had success throwing to the glove side, as the Rays went 0-for-7 in at-bats ending with a pitch in that location.

Peavy pitches in
The Chicago White Sox sent the defending AL Central champions home with a 5-2 loss, snapping a 6-game losing streak to the Detroit Tigers. The White Sox have now won five straight and 11 of their last 13 home openers.

Jake Peavy, who went just 3-6 with a 6.11 ERA at home last season, was in fine form for the White Sox this afternoon. He allowed just two runs on two hits with eight strikeouts in 6⅔ innings to earn his first win of the season.

Peavy was able to finish off the Tigers hitters, who were 1-for-15 with eight strikeouts in at-bats ending with a two-strike count. The Detroit lineup also had trouble with his high pitches, going hitless with four strikeouts in six at-bats ending with a pitch up in the zone or above.

Sunday Night Baseball kicks off (ESPN, 8 ET) with the Chicago White Sox in Arlington to take on the two-time defending American League champion Texas Rangers.

Rangers Ballpark in Arlington was the most hitter-friendly stadium in the majors in 2011. According to Elias, teams scored 41 percent more runs and hit 50 percent more home runs in Rangers home games than in their games on the road. Coors Field ranked second with 35 percent increases in both categories.

Starting pitchers
Gavin Floyd goes on the road for his first start of the season. In 2011, he was much better on the road than at U.S. Cellular Field. Away from home he was 8-6 with a 3.41 ERA; his 5.66 ERA at home was the third-worst among major league starters, better than only Brandon Morrow and John Lackey.

Over the last three seasons, Floyd’s curveball has been one of the hardest to hit in the majors. Opposing hitters bat .144 against his curve. Only Ricky Romero allowed a lower average when throwing curveballs.

Floyd is especially fond of the curveball in two-strike counts. Twenty percent of his pitches overall are curves, but with two strikes his usage jumps to 37 percent. Last season, Floyd struck out 71 batters on curveballs, the fourth-highest total in the American League.

Matt Harrison went from being demoted to the bullpen in 2010 to 14 wins last season. The key was cutting his walk rate by more than a third, from 4.5 walks per 9 innings in 2010 to 2.8 walks per 9 last season. In three-ball counts, he improved his strike percentage from 71 to 81 percent.

Among left-handed starters, Harrison had the fifth-highest average fastball velocity last season. He has steadily increased his velocity from 90.8 mph in 2008 to 92.7 mph in 2011. That added zip has been key to an effective high fastball. Opponents hit .216 on plate appearances ending in a high fastball last year, down from .261 in 2010.

Key matchup: Harrison vs Adam Dunn
Dunn had a strikeout and two walks against Derek Holland on Saturday and struggled against left-handed pitchers last season. The three-hole hitter in the White Sox lineup hit .064 and slugged .074 against lefties last year. It was the first time in his career that he slugged less than .400 against lefties.

He was even worse against two of Harrison’s strengths. He went 0-for-23 against sliders and 3-for-56 against fastballs from thrown by left-handed pitchers.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Dunn is the only major-league player in the past 50 years who batted below .100 in a season with at least 100 plate appearances versus southpaws.

Jeremy Lundblad contributed to this post

Albert Pujols makes his Los Angeles Angels debut tonight against the Kansas City Royals (ESPN2, 10 ET). Pujols signed a 10-year, $254 million free agent deal with the Angels in the offseason after spending 11 seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Pujols is one of six players to hit 400 career home runs and bat at least .325. The others are Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig and Stan Musial. Pujols’ 445 home runs through his first 11 seasons are the most all-time through a player’s initial 11 years in the majors.

Pujols represents a significant upgrade for the Angels at the No. 3 spot in the order. His .906 OPS last season was a career low, but stands as a huge improvement over the Angels’ .745 OPS out of the three hole last year.

Starting Pitchers
Bruce Chen – who will turn 35 in June - is making his first career opening day start. According to Elias, only one major-league pitcher in the last 10 years was older than Chen when he was making his first opening day start. That was Jose Contreras, who was 35 when he started the first game of the 2007 season for the Chicago White Sox.

Quick Hits on Chen
• Chen threw 2,518 pitches last season. Only nine of those reached 90 mph
• Last season, his fastball averaged 85.7 mph. In the AL, the only starters with a slower fastball were Mark Buehrle, Jeff Francis and Tim Wakefield.
• Held opposing No. 3 hitters to .224 BA and .674 OPS

Jered Weaver makes his fourth opening day start (and third straight) for the Angels. Weaver is 2-1 with a 2.89 ERA in three career opening day starts. Last year, Weaver became the first pitcher in MLB history with six wins by April 25, and just the sixth with six wins by the end of April.

Quick Hits on Weaver
• No starting pitcher had a higher fly ball percentage in 2011 (50 percent)
• In his seven no decisions last season, he allowed a total of seven earned runs
• Opposing 3-6 hitters combined for a .196 BA and .570 OPS
• There are three active pitchers who had double-digit wins in each of their first six seasons: Weaver, CC Sabathia and Tim Hudson. Roy Oswalt and Andy Pettitte would also qualify if active.

Stat of the Game
Pujols is a .379 lifetime hitter against the Royals, giving him the highest batting average against the Royals for any player – past or present – with at least 150 at-bats against them, according to our friends from the Elias Sports Bureau.

Opening Day Note
This is the first time in 37 years that the Angels and Royals have met on Opening Day. According to Elias, it last happened in 1975, as California’s Nolan Ryan threw a three-hitter and won, 3-2. Besides Ryan, two other Hall-of-Famers played in that game: George Brett and Harmon Killebrew of the Royals.

The Miami Marlins have made their mark at baseball’s winter meetings.

Now they’ve gotten one of their marks, as in former Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle, who agreed to terms on a four-year deal with the team today.

Buehrle has a reputation of being one of baseball’s most statistically consistent pitchers

What do we mean by that?

• He's had 11 straight seasons of 200 innings and at least 10 wins. The next-longest current streak of any major league pitcher is seven seasons by Dan Haren.

• Buehrle has made the most starts and pitched the most innings since 2001. He’s also fourth-best in that span in wins (157) and complete games (27).

• He’s had nearly identical numbers the last three seasons – 13 wins in each year, a strikeouts-per-nine innings rate ranging from 4.2 to 4.8, a walks-per-nine-innings rate from 1.9 to 2.1, and ground ball rates ranging from 44 to 47 percent.

• His Wins Above Replacement in these three seasons—- 3.4, 3.7, 3.4.

One thing that Buehrle will give the Marlins that they lacked last season is a left-handed starter in their rotation.

The Marlins got just 12 starts from left-handed pitchers last year (all were from rookie Brad Hand, who was 1-8 with 4.20 ERA). That was the fewest starts from left-handers by any NL team.

Why would the Marlins want left-handed pitching? In 2011, the only NL East team with a winning record vs southpaw starters was the Philadelphia Phillies (30-14).

He does come at a hefty price of $58 million over four years, which reunites him with his former manager with the White Sox, Ozzie Guillen.

That’s the second largest free agent contract given by the Marlins, topped only by the deal given to Jose Reyes a few days ago.

The Marlins have now committed $191 million in contracts (that they or another team will pay) for three free agents (Heath Bell, Mark Buehrle, and Jose Reyes).

That is approximately $20 million more in contracts than they awarded to free agents in the previous 14 offseasons combined ($170 million in contracts awarded from 1997-10).

The only other team in the last five offseasons (since 2007) to award at least $190 million in free agent contracts in a single offseason was the New York Yankees. In the 2007-2008 offseason, they committed $396 million, then topped that with $441 million in contracts in 2008-09.

Buehrle leaves behind a positive legacy in Chicago. He ranks fourth in White Sox history in both games started (365) and strikeouts (1,396) and ranks sixth on the team’s all-time wins list (161).

He’s also one of three pitchers to pitch multiple no-hitters, including a perfect game, and win a World Series title for the same team. The other two are baseball legends: Hall-of-Famers Cy Young (Red Sox) and Sandy Koufax (Dodgers).

Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox wrap up their three-game series tonight on Sunday Night Baseball at 8 ET on ESPN2. Detroit, who has won 15 of the last 20 matchups, is looking for its second sweep of Chicago this season.

Yesterday, the Tigers scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to rally for the 9-8 win. All three runs came off White Sox closer Sergio Santos, who had not allowed a run on the road yet this season. The Tigers seven-run comeback was their largest of the season, while the White Sox blew their largest lead of the season.

On the Mound
Mark Buehrle takes the ball for the visiting White Sox tonight. When he’s on the hill, don’t think about getting a snack or you might miss an entire inning. He averages just 15 pitches per inning, sixth-fewest among AL starters.

Lowest ERA in AL
Since May 1

Justin Verlander	2.04
Mark Buehrle	2.47
Josh Beckett	2.51
Jeremy Hellickson	2.69
Ervin Santana	2.89

Buehrle had a miserable start to the season, going 1-3 with a 5.12 ERA in six April starts. But he’s turned it around since then, with a 10-3 record and 2.47 ERA in his last 20 starts. His 2.47 ERA since May 1 is second in the AL behind only Justin Verlander.

Buehrle has dominated the Tigers in recent starts, with a 7-1 record and 2.96 ERA since August 3, 2007, and is 18-9 against them for his career.

Max Scherzer is scheduled to be on the mound for the Tigers. Scherzer’s ERA has risen more than a run from last year (3.50) to this year (4.52). The longball has been a problem for him, as he’s already surrendered 25 homers after allowing 20 in 2010. Five of those home runs have come on pitches out of the strike zone to right-handed hitters. Last season, he allowed none.

Scherzer, however, has pitched well against the Pale Hose this season, with a 1.64 ERA in 22 innings. He has just one win to show for it, though, as the Tigers have scored only four runs in the three games he’s started.

Cabrera

Matchup to Watch
Miguel Cabrera, who hit a walk-off homer to complete the Tigers’ comeback on Saturday, has crushed White Sox pitching this year. He’s hitting .353 with five homers and 12 RBI in 14 games. That comes one year after he hit a miserable .161 with just two homers in 16 games in 2010.

Stat of the Game
The Tigers entered September 1 in first place in the AL Central. However, the last three times the Tigers led their division on the morning of September 1, they failed to win the division at the end of the season (2009, 2006, 1988). Only in 2006 did they still make the playoffs as the wild card.

-- Mark Simon contributed to this post

There were a number of strong performances on the mound Monday. Here's a look at how some of Monday's pitchers got the job done:

How Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle shut out the Minnesota Twins:
• Buehrle struck out four in 7 2/3 scoreless innings to lead the White Sox to a 3-0 win over the Twins. Buehrle earned his 27th career win against the Twins, the most wins for any active pitcher against a single team. Buehrle is now 27-19 in his career versus the Twins (most wins versus Minnesota since the team moved to Minnesota in 1960).

• In four starts against the Twins this season, Buehrle is 2-1 with a 0.29 ERA (30 2/3 IP, 1 ER). Buehrle is holding the Twins to a .144 average this season, but the numbers are even better against non-fastballs. After a 2 for 17 effort Monday, the Twins are now 5 for 51 (.098) in at-bats ending with Buehrle's non-fastballs.

• Buehrle did walk two hitters, but of the 29 hitters he faced, only one saw a 2-0 count. In addition, he only went to a three-ball count on four hitters (including the two walks).

How Philadelphia Phillies starter Cole Hamels bounced back against Cincinnati:
• Hamels may not have gotten the win in his first start back from the disabled list, but he still pitched well enough to help the Phillies beat the Reds, 3-2. In his previous start before hitting the disabled list with shoulder inflammation, Hamels' fastball averaged just 88.6 MPH, almost a full three MPH below his season average of 91.5. On Monday, Hamels' fastball averaged 90.1, a big step up from his last start, but still his second-slowest fastball of the season.

• Despite that, the pitch was effective for him. Reds hitters were just 1 for 11 with two strikeouts on at-bats ending with a Hamels fastball. Only one of the nine fastballs hitters put in play was well hit, according to Inside Edge.

• Hamels' changeup was dominant, as usual. Five of the six outs he recorded on his changeup were strikeouts. Reds hitters missed on eight of their 11 swings (72.7 percent) against the pitch, Hamels' third-highest miss percentage on his changeup in a start this season. No starter in baseball has induced swings and misses on changeups at a higher rate (51.2 percent) this season than Hamels.

How New York Yankees pitcher Freddy Garcia beat the Baltimore Orioles:
• Forty-four percent of pitches taken against him were called strikes, his highest percentage of the season.

• His fastest pitch was clocked at 89.6 mph. It was his fastest pitch since June 28, when he reached 90.9 mph on the gun.

•He recorded four strikeouts on the night – all four at-bats ended with a splitter.

• The home run Garcia surrendered to Mark Reynolds was his first allowed since June 7. Garcia went 69 innings between gopher balls – the longest active homerless streak among starting pitchers, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Lee Singer and Mike Trainor contributed to this story.

Five teams won in walk-off style Tuesday, tied for the most walk-off wins on a single day this season.

The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants 2-1 in 11 innings on Martin Prado's third career walk-off hit. It’s the second straight night the Braves won via walk-off, their major-league-leading 22nd last-AB win this season. It’s their 10th walk-off win, tied with the Giants for second-most in the bigs (Royals – 11). It's the Giants' eighth walk-off loss, only six teams have more.

The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 in 11 innings on Garrett Jones’ second career walk-off HR. It’s the 11th last-AB win for the Pirates this season, only four teams have fewer. For the Cardinals, it’s their 11th walk-off loss this season, tied for the most in the major leagues.

The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 on Mark Kotsay's 10th career walk-off hit (second this season, both with the bases loaded). The Brewers have won 18 of their past 20 games for just the second time in franchise history. It’s their 18th final-AB win -- only three teams have more -- and L.A.'s fourth walk-off loss, only three teams have fewer.

The Houston Astros beat the Chicago Cubs 6-5 on a walk-off grand slam from Brian Bogusevic, just his second career home run and first career walk-off hit. The Astros have the fewest wins in baseball, but eight of them have come via the walk-off -- only four teams have more this season. It’s Carlos Marmol’s eighth blown save this season, tied for the major league lead.

And in the night’s final game, the Chicago White Sox beat the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in 14 innings on a Juan Pierre walk-off single, his seventh career walk-off RBI. The White Sox have just four walk-off wins this season, they entered the game tied for last in the majors in that department. It’s the ninth walk-off loss for Cleveland, only four teams have more this season.