2008 State of the Sox

April 3: White Sox 2, Indians 1

Pitching-wise, this is how Ozzie Guillen drew it up in the offseason.  A starter getting a game into the seventh, and Octavio Dotel, Scott Linebrink and Bobby Jenks closing the door.

John Danks did what Mark Buehrle and Javier Vazquez couldn't do in shutting down the Indians for 6 2/3 innings, allowing only two hits.  Really, he allowed only one hit, as a ball caromed off Jermaine Dye's mitt for a second straight game.

As he showed last year against Cleveland in a 2-1 game that went the other way, when Danks is on, he can get by with only two pitches -- his fastball and his changeup.  His cutter, which was the only pitch to get hit today, showed the added effect of keeping hitters from diving at the changeup so readily.  If it continues to be effective, he'll have far better control of both corners.

If there's one knock against Danks, it's that he should've lasted longer according to his pitch count.  He entered the seventh inning having thrown only 73 pitches, but he appeared gassed.  He began leaving pitches up, and Cleveland hitters began smacking them.

Two points in Danks' defense: One is that pitching in a close game has to be more stressful than pitching with a cushion.  A largely ineffective Sox offense -- outside of solo homers by Juan Uribe and Joe Crede -- didn't give him much to work with.

The other is that he suffered from some rough defense.  His one jam of the game started with a one-out, four-pitch walk to Travis Hafner, but Dye proceeded to make two errors in a row, though he wouldn't be charged for either.

The first came after the Hafner walk, when Ryan Garko hit a liner that glanced off Dye's glove.  Dye started in on the ball and couldn't get back in time, and Hafner scored on the "double."  Unfortunately, Dye did arrive in time on Franklin Guiterrez's shallow fly to center, because it caused him to run into Nick Swisher, jarring the ball loose and putting runners on second and third.  Swisher was charged with his first error in a Sox uniform.

Good luck came Danks' way on the next batter, when Asdrubal Cabrera smoked a hot shot that bounced off Crede's chest.  Orlando Cabrera alertly charged it and threw out Cabrera by a step, and Garko had to hold at third.  Dotel cleaned up the inning with a weak flyout to Swisher, and Linebrink and Jenks went six up, six down to close it out.

Carlos Quentin made his season debut in an underwhelming fashion.  He went 1-for-4, but grounded out twice with runners in scoring position.  One was converted into the only double play on the day for either team.

Record: 1-2 | Box score | Play-by-play