2007 State of the Sox

May 22: White Sox 10, Athletics 4

In the White Sox's first 39 games, they hadn't scored 10 runs in a single outing.  Suddenly, they've done it twice in three days, and tonight's outburst was long overdue for John Danks.  The rookie lefty, buoyed by a large early cushion, managed to win his third consecutive decision despite having his least impressive stuff this season.

Sox hitters didn't think much of Oakland starter Colby Lewis, scoring all their runs off him over the first four innings.  Jim Thome kept the first alive with a two-out single through the shift, his first hit since returning from the DL.  Jermaine Dye followed with his fourth homer in six games to give the Sox a quick 2-0 lead.

Thome was just getting started.  He'd drive in two with a double the following inning, and then belted a bomb into the seats in right to cap a 3-for-3, five RBI night.  He also drew a walk in his other plate appearance.

Sox hitters trashed Lewis for 12 hits in 3 1/3 innings.  Alex Cintron continued to build momentum with a two-run double, one of two hits on the night.  Darin Erstad also scored two runs out of the leadoff spot while adding an RBI single.  Once again, Tadahito Iguchi found himself hitless, and tonight he was the only regular without a base hit.

The surge in production was a welcome sight to Danks, who was off on his location all night.  His line -- 6 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K -- doesn't tell the whole story.  He got behind a lot of batters, didn't seem to have his curveball, and gave up a lot of hard-hit balls.

The defense helped him out of early trouble -- Paul Konerko caught a rocket shot and turned it into an inning-ending 3-6 double play, and Iguchi snared a liner up the middle with two on and nobody out, and flipped it to second to reduce the threat.

And in a way, even Pablo Ozuna and Erstad helped Danks out with their errors.  Ozuna actually had two misplays, but only one of them counted as an error when he failed to pick a rather routine ground ball.  But that and Erstad's bobble would make two of Danks' runs unearned, and helped to lower his ERA to 3.76 with no other negative consequence.

There were a couple of lowlights -- the Sox only managed one hit off Oakland reliever Lenny DiNardo in 4 2/3 innings, and it's hard to tell if it was due to settling in after a big early lead, or the fact that DiNardo throws with his left hand.  Andy Sisco also had another disappointing outing, allowing three straight Athletics to reach (and one to score) after getting the first two outs in the ninth.

Record: 23-19 | Box score | Play-by-play