2007 State of the Sox

May 9: White Sox 6, Twins 3

So this is what happens when John Danks gets support.

Bolstered by a four-run lead before he ever took the mound, the rookie lefty went out and pitched his finest outing of his young career, and earned his first major-league win in the process.

Mixing all his pitches well, Danks got through the first four innings without allowing a hit -- with the help of a diving catch by Darin Erstad -- though Mike Cuddyer could've been called out on his infield single leading off the fifth.  Slowing it down on the DVR, and it looked like his foot didn't touch.  But Mike Redmond made it a moot point regardless when he led off the sixth with a legitimate single.

While he only used 86 pitches, Danks appeared to be laboring towards the end of the seventh, not finishing his pitches and leaving them up and away.  It didn't look like physical fatigue; more like he was tightening up, knowing that with one more out, he could get back to the bench with a six-run lead and only two innings ago.  But after a couple walks, he grooved a fastball to Jeff Cirillo, who singled to center to deny Danks that glory.

Instead, Ozzie went to the bullpen, probably rightly so, and replaced him with Mike MacDougal.  MacDougal, unfortunately, is snakebitten right now.  In previous outings, he struggled with his control and issued too many free passes.  This time, he did exactly what he was supposed to do -- get hitters to beat the ball into the ground -- but they found holes.  And when a grounder didn't find a hole, Juan Uribe threw the ball away. 

MacDougal then walked Mike Cuddyer to put runners on the corners and bring up yesterday's hero, Justin Morneau, as the tying run.

I figured Ozzie would call in Bobby Jenks, since Morneau is 0-for-10 lifetime off Jenks with five strikeouts.  Instead, he brought in Boone Logan, and instantly brought me flashbacks of the Travis Hafner debacle last year.  Logan proved himself worthy, however, when he made Morneau look silly on three straight breaking pitches.

The relief was shortlived, since Jenks then entered to work the ninth and walked the first two batters he faced to once again have the tying run at the plate.  Then he flipped the switch and retired the next three hitters on eight pitches, all of them strikes, and resulting in two strikeouts.

The victory could've been a lot easier considering the Sox jumped on Ramon Ortiz, for four first-inning runs.  Darin Erstad led it off with a single, and Pablo Ozuna followed up another base hit off Nick Punto's glove.  Jermaine Dye invoked the infield fly rule, but Paul Konerko actually picked him up for once with a double down the left field line.  And when Joe Crede popped up, Uribe picked him up with a bases-loaded walk -- on a 3-2 pitch, too!  Then Ryan Sweeney hit a two-run, broken-bat single to left to make it a quick 4-0 lead.

Rob Mackowiak and Crede added RBI singles later, but Hunter thwarted the Sox's best chance to truly blow open the game when he made a beautiful over-the-shoulder catch on Juan Uribe's line drive to straightaway center, holding onto the ball as he crashed into the base of the baggie fence.

Record: 15-15 | Box score | Play-by-play