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Long stints don't bother pitchers
By Scott Merkin / MLB.com

Orlando Hernandez (Nam Y. Huh/AP)
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CHICAGO -- Imagine the following scenario playing out for any Major League baseball team, not just the White Sox.
It's the bottom of the ninth inning. The home team is holding a 1-0 lead and the starting pitcher has just finished a shutout with a tantalizing split-finger to strike out the opposing cleanup hitter. Nothing out of the ordinary so far, right?

The only difference is that final offering from the starter was his 177th pitch of the contest. It sounds preposterous, flat-out made up in this day and age of middle relief specialization and closers picking up the final couple of outs.

But that particular situation actually has played out before for Jose Contreras. There were no closers in Cuba when Contreras and Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez pitched in their home country. Working 130 or 135 pitches was normal, and not a total that caused worry or consternation among an organization's brass or vast fan base.

"I never worry about pitch count," Hernandez said after throwing 118 pitches over seven innings during a victory over Detroit Saturday night. "When I pitch in Cuba, I throw 135 for the game. I never had an injury."

"My injury came when I came to the United States and threw 100 pitches [per game]," Hernandez added with a wry smile, referring to the rotator cuff surgery he went through two years ago.

The White Sox starting five of Contreras, Hernandez, Jon Garland, Mark Buehrle and Freddy Garcia have put together a 12-3 record and 2.93 earned run average going into Monday's off day. The rotation's combined ERA is far and away tops in the American League, and it has amassed 16 quality starts.

Even with the tremendous opening, this rotation is not without its little imperfections and adjustments. When Mark Buehrle takes the mound on Tuesday night against Kansas City and Freddy Garcia follows on Wednesday, both pitchers will be working with an unusual six days' rest in between starts.

Part of the issue comes from off days falling for the White Sox this past Thursday and Monday. But with five quality starters in play, manager Ozzie Guillen and pitching coach Don Cooper decided in Spring Training that nobody will be skipped to keep certain hurlers on schedule.

It's a far cry from 2004, when eight pitchers combined to finish 5-16 at the fifth starter's slot. The White Sox not only wanted to skip that hurler --at times, they needed to skip this ineffective rotation position. Of course, leaving a pitcher inactive for 12 days at a time made it tough for him to stand strong when he finally took the mound.

"I don't care what you are doing, in any profession, but when you work once every 13 days, you won't be nearly as efficient as you could be on a more regular basis," Cooper said. "We aren't going to let the fifth guy have 10 days off, and so far it's kind of working and paying off for us."

Buehrle, who the White Sox have always tried to keep on regular four days' rest, ideally would like to stay in that system. With the White Sox having only one off day for the rest of the month -- May 19 -- he will get the chance to avoid a week of inactivity.

But the consummate team player understands the team's plans plan. In fact, he put forth an interesting viewpoint on the starter who would be skipped, if the South Siders passed over anyone.

"I have the highest ERA on the team and on the staff," said Buehrle, who enters Tuesday with a 3-1 record and 3.89 ERA, highest among the starters and only ahead of Luis Vizcaino [7.43] and Shingo Takatsu [8.10] on the staff. "If there's one guy to skip, it probably would be me.

"You never know. If I keep throwing the ball the way I did [Tuesday in Oakland] and everyone else keeps on dominating, why wouldn't they [skip him]? You want your best guys out there if we have only so many off days.

"If it comes down to it and they skip me, I understand what's going on," Buehrle added. "It's frustrating, but look at the way the staff is throwing."

With 72 victories over the past five years as a starter, the only way Buehrle would be skipped is if the left-hander suddenly retired. Guillen and Cooper are carefully watching his innings and pitch count, trying to have this rotation fresh for the post-season push in August and September.

That pitch count attention brings the focus back to Contreras and Hernandez. Both pitchers are sturdy, talented veterans who know how to pitch. Hernandez's various arm angles with which he delivers pitches makes him look more like a contortionist than a Major League hurler, while Contreras is widely considered to have some of the best raw stuff in the AL.

Both pitchers also have been prone to high pitch totals in a less than optimum amount of innings. As Hernandez previously stated, working late into the game and high into the pitch count is not a foreign concept. Hernandez spoke of a 155-pitch shutout he threw in Cuba -- and he came back the next day and threw one inning of relief.

These hurlers work early in the game to find their rhythm, having been afforded the chance in the past to get stronger as the game goes on. That scenario simply won't play out in Chicago.

Hernandez "respects the limit," and Contreras understands that the White Sox are looking out for his best interest -- even if he doesn't necessarily agree with the concept.

"If I had to go 135 pitches in a game, I could because that's what you train yourself to do," Contreras said through translator Ozzie Guillen Jr. "But my goal is to throw 100 to 110 pitches in seven innings."

Cooper and catchers A.J. Pierzynski and Chris Widger have worked to understand this duo's approach. But the overall pitching philosophy isn't changing, not while this plan is working to perfection.

"It's not something we adjust to," Cooper said. "They have to adjust to it and be more efficient with their pitches so they can go longer in the game like we want.

"We aren't going to change from the original plan. We aren't going to overtax guys. The ends don't justify the means. We need them all year, hopefully staying strong the whole season and into the playoffs. Too much now is against our plan."