CHICAGO — As the ball ricocheted off his left foot toward the first base side, Mark Buehrle tried to figure out how to make a play.

A between-the-legs flip? Uh, OK. That’ll work.

.

“You see the play happening, you run over there saying, ‘Do I slide and spin, or do I grab the ball and throw it?’” Buehrle said. “I think every thought went through my head. It just happened the way it did.”

Buehrle’s spectacular play in the fifth highlighted an opening day when he pitched three-hit ball over seven innings and Paul Konerko homered to lead the Chicago White Sox to a 6-0 win over the Cleveland Indians on Monday.

Konerko got his 12th season in Chicago off to a good start with a two-run drive in the first and Buehrle simply shut down the Indians, spoiling Cleveland manager Manny Acta’s debut and Jake Westbrook’s first start in nearly two years.

Alex Rios added a solo homer off Tony Sipp in the eighth and ended the game with a diving catch on Travis Hafner’s line drive to center.

Buehrle, starting his club-record eighth opener, looked more like the four-time All-Star he is than the guy who won just twice last year after his perfect game against Tampa Bay on July 23.

For Cleveland, the start of the new season looked awfully similar to the last one — a 65-win disaster that led to Eric Wedge’s firing.

Westbrook — back from reconstructive elbow surgery — tied a club record with four wild pitches, hit Carlos Quentin twice, walked four and allowed five runs and five hits in his first start since May 28, 2008.

“Chalk it up to I just didn’t pitch well,” he said. “I’m done with the excuses of you haven’t pitched in a year and a half. Now it’s just a matter of getting better.”

He left trailing 4-0 after walking Konerko to load the bases with none out in the fifth, but the trouble began almost as soon as he took the mound.

More photos below.

Quentin doubled to the right-field corner with two out in the first and Konerko made it 2-0 when he sent the next pitch to the right-field bullpen, just beyond a leaping Shin-Soo Choo. He pumped his fist as he rounded first and took a curtain call as fans chanted “Paulie! Paulie!”

Buehrle retired the last 10 batters he faced, struck out three and walked one, but most impressive was that play in the fifth, when he stuck his leg out and knocked Lou Marson’s hard one-hopper into foul territory along the first base side. Buehrle raced over and — in one motion — used his glove to shovel the ball between his legs to Konerko for a barehanded catch that retired the runner.

Catcher A.J. Pierzynski called it “probably one of the top two or three plays I’ve seen.” He compared it to DeWayne Wise’s juggling, home run-robbing catch against the wall in the ninth inning to preserve Buehrle’s perfect game.

As the play unfolded, Konerko said: “I was just trying to be loud and let him know where I was because I knew he would be kind of blind. With nobody on base, you can kind of go for broke. It’s not like you have to worry about the ball getting away from you. He put it right on the money.”

As for the barehanded catch?

“It’s not something you practice,” Konerko said. “You probably won’t see it again for years, maybe.”

When the crowd roared, Buehrle knew: Somehow, he got the out. A Gold Glove winner last year, he quickly added this play to the highlight reel.

“I take pride in fielding my position as good as I can,” said Buehrle, whose foot was bruised.

Marson couldn’t believe Buehrle got him.

“I don’t think he even looked at the bag,” he said.

After a pause, he asked: “And he went in between his legs? Was it in between his legs?”

J.J. Putz pitched the eighth for Chicago and Matt Thornton retired the side in the ninth.

Notes

• Sam McDowell (twice) and Steve Hargan previously threw four wild pitches in a game for Cleveland.
• Indians 2B Luis Valbuena sat out with a right hand bruise after being hit by a pitch in Saturday’s exhibition finale. “He’s just a little sore and we want to be on the conservative side,” Acta said. “Our medical staff is happy with the progress he’s made.” Asked if the left-handed-hitting Valbuena would platoon with right-handed Mark Grudzielanek, Acta said: “No. Valbuena’s our second baseman.”

Phillips

ELYRIA — Jeffrey Phillips, the Lorain man shot by North Ridgeville police who have said he tried to run two officers down last week, told officers he wanted them to shoot him and had wanted to kill a police officer, a prosecutor said during a hearing Monday.

“He made a statement regarding himself that he wanted the officers to shoot him in the head and he wanted to die,” Toni Morgan, a North Ridgeville prosecutor, told Elyria Municipal Court Judge Lisa Locke Graves. “He also made the statement that before they approached him he was going to run his (expletive) down and blow his (expletive) brains out, referring to the officers.”

Locke Graves called Phillips, 30, a “risk to the community” before setting his bond at more than $160,000. He is charged with felonious assault, failure to comply, resisting arrest and several traffic violations.

North Ridgeville police Lt. Michael Freeman and patrolmen Dean Mraz and Josh Riley went to Morris Cadillac Buick Pontiac GMC at about 2 p.m. Thursday to arrest Phillips on a domestic violence warrant out of Lorain. Phillips is accused of attacking his sister, Heidi Deloach, earlier in day.

The officers chased Phillips briefly on foot before he got into his 2002 Chrysler 300, “rammed his vehicle free and sped toward officers with their guns drawn and tried to run them down,” according to a search warrant for Phillips’ vehicle unsealed Monday.

North Ridgeville police Capt. Allan Dent said Mraz and Freeman opened fire on Phillips, who police have said was struck three times. Police recovered a bullet and bullet fragments from the Chrysler 300, according to the warrant.

Police Chief Rick Thomas said Mraz and Freeman fired at Phillips in self-defense because they feared for their lives.

Phillips then led police on a high-speed chase to his home on East 41st Street in Lorain, where he was arrested during a struggle with officers after jumping from his still-moving car, according to police.

The official account stands in stark contrast to what Deloach and Phillips’ family believe happened.

Deloach said her brother had planned to turn himself in on the warrant after completing work for the day, and when he saw the officers arrive at the car dealership he planned to surrender, even though he was leery of police because of an Oct. 12, 2008, incident.

In that incident, Phillips was arrested on a DUI charge following another high-speed pursuit. After being taken to the now-closed Elyria City Jail, he struggled with officers and was slammed face-first into a brick wall by a corrections officer, who later was punished. Phillips ended up with a $20,000 settlement from the city and a fear of police, Deloach said.

Phillips is currently on parole for a 2002 armed robbery and high-speed chase that sent him to prison for six years.

Deloach said her brother told her that police opened fire even though he had done nothing to provoke them.

“He said as soon as he was walking forward, they just started shooting at him,” she said.

Her brother, whose arms are encased in foam pads to protect him from aggravating his injuries during his arraignment Monday, was shot in the left shoulder, the left wrist and left hand, Deloach said. She said he also told her he had been wounded in the right hand.

Jack Bradley, Phillips’ attorney, said he has yet to talk with his new client, who is due back in court Wednesday.

“All I know is that the charges are serious, and we’ll take a look at it and see what happens,” he said.

Mraz, 42, and Freeman, 40, were placed on leave following Thursday’s shooting per department policy.

Dent said both men were cleared to return to work today, but Freeman’s scheduled days off are today and Wednesday and Mraz had previously requested time off this week.

Both men are veteran officers — Mraz has been with the department for 15 years and Freeman has 16 years on the job — with personnel files full of commendations and praise from citizens for their work.

Mraz also spent time in Fairfax, Va., as a police officer and while serving in the Marine Corps. He is praised in his file for his work as a detective, for his role in dealing with a 2006 car chase and for handling calls ranging from armed robbery to theft and burglary.

Freeman, who became a lieutenant in 2003, had an equally positive file, earning commendations for his handling of another car chase, catching a drug dealer while working on an unrelated case, helping end a high-speed chase while off duty and for the compassionate way he told a mother her son had died.

Both men also have complimentary letters in their files from citizens they pulled over for speeding.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

CHICAGO – As the ball ricocheted off his left foot toward the first base side, Mark Buehrle tried to figure out how to make a play.

A between-the-legs flip? Uh, OK. That’ll work.

“You see the play happening, you run over there saying, ‘Do I slide and spin, or do I grab the ball and throw it?’” Buehrle said. “I think every thought went through my head. It just happened the way it did.”

Buehrle’s spectacular play in the fifth highlighted an opening day when he pitched three-hit ball over seven innings and Paul Konerko homered to lead the Chicago White Sox to a 6-0 win over the Cleveland Indians on Monday.

Konerko got his 12th season in Chicago off to a good start with a two-run drive in the first and Buehrle simply shut down the Indians, spoiling Cleveland manager Manny Acta’s debut and Jake Westbrook’s first start in nearly two years.

Alex Rios added a solo homer off Tony Sipp in the eighth and ended the game with a diving catch on Travis Hafner’s line drive to center.

Buehrle, starting his club-record eighth opener, looked more like the four-time All-Star he is than the guy who won just twice last year after his perfect game against Tampa Bay on July 23.

For Cleveland, the start of the new season looked awfully similar to the last one – a 65-win disaster that led to Eric Wedge’s firing.

Westbrook – back from reconstructive elbow surgery – tied a club record with four wild pitches, hit Carlos Quentin twice, walked four and allowed five runs and five hits in his first start since May 28, 2008.

“Chalk it up to I just didn’t pitch well,” he said. “I’m done with the excuses of you haven’t pitched in a year and a half. Now it’s just a matter of getting better.”

He left trailing 4-0 after walking Konerko to load the bases with none out in the fifth, but the trouble began almost as soon as he took the mound.

Quentin doubled to the right-field corner with two out in the first and Konerko made it 2-0 when he sent the next pitch to the right-field bullpen, just beyond a leaping Shin-Soo Choo. He pumped his fist as he rounded first and took a curtain call as fans chanted “Paulie! Paulie!”

Buehrle retired the last 10 batters he faced, struck out three and walked one, but most impressive was that play in the fifth, when he stuck his leg out and knocked Lou Marson’s hard one-hopper into foul territory along the first base side. Buehrle raced over and – in one motion – used his glove to shovel the ball between his legs to Konerko for a barehanded catch that retired the runner.

Catcher A.J. Pierzynski called it “probably one of the top two or three plays I’ve seen.” He compared it to DeWayne Wise’s juggling, home run-robbing catch against the wall in the ninth inning to preserve Buehrle’s perfect game.

As the play unfolded, Konerko said: “I was just trying to be loud and let him know where I was because I knew he would be kind of blind. With nobody on base, you can kind of go for broke. It’s not like you have to worry about the ball getting away from you. He put it right on the money.”

As for the barehanded catch?

“It’s not something you practice,” Konerko said. “You probably won’t see it again for years, maybe.”

When the crowd roared, Buehrle knew: Somehow, he got the out. A Gold Glove winner last year, he quickly added this play to the highlight reel.

“I take pride in fielding my position as good as I can,” said Buehrle, whose foot was bruised.

Marson couldn’t believe Buehrle got him.

“I don’t think he even looked at the bag,” he said.

After a pause, he asked: “And he went in between his legs? Was it in between his legs?”

J.J. Putz pitched the eighth for Chicago and Matt Thornton retired the side in the ninth.

Notes

Sam McDowell (twice) and Steve Hargan previously threw four wild pitches in a game for Cleveland.

… Indians 2B Luis Valbuena sat out with a right hand bruise after being hit by a pitch in Saturday’s exhibition finale. “He’s just a little sore and we want to be on the conservative side,” Acta said. “Our medical staff is happy with the progress he’s made.” Asked if the left-handed-hitting Valbuena would platoon with right-handed Mark Grudzielanek, Acta said: “No. Valbuena’s our second baseman.”

ELYRIA — Several shots were fired into a Riverside Drive home overnight, and one of those entered a bedroom where a couple was sleeping, and the homeowner says it isn’t the first time her house has been shot at.

The homeowner told police she and a man were sleeping in an upstairs bedroom about 2:30 a.m. when she heard something hitting her house.

She said her home had been shot at previously when someone was shooting at her sons, and that the noise was similar.

Officers noted they were standing outside the home when a red Ford Explorer drove by westbound on 11th Street looking at the residence, missed a stop sign and and turned the corner at a high rate of speed.

Officers found four bullet holes in the home. One bullet entered the living room, damaging a television stand a a baseboard. Another bullet went into the bedroom and two others went into the ceiling.

Officers found four spent shell casings on the sidewalk in front of the home. Officers were unable to locate slugs and instructed the homeowner to contact them if she did.