2008 State of the Sox

April 15: White Sox 4, Athletics 1

Pitching, defense and well-timed homers.  Where have we seen this recipe before?

Carlos Quentin's big three-run shot -- punctuated by a massive bat flip -- was all the offense the birthday boy, John Danks, would need.  After struggling with the singling Twins, Danks got in an early groove and let his defense go to work behind him.  And work they did.

*Danks himself kicked it off by picking off Mark Ellis after a one-out walk in the first inning.

*Alexei Ramirez, starting in center field as Nick Swisher shifted to first, made an incredible throw to nail Emil Brown as he tried to stretch a single into a double leading off the second.  Ramirez snagged the ball as it headed into the right-center gap, and in one motion spun and fired to second, where it landed in Orlando Cabrera's mitt on the fly with plenty of time for a tag.

*Leading off the sixth, Joe Crede went three steps and a flop to his right, popped up and fired to Swisher to get Ellis by a step.  Swisher made a beautiful pick on the play.

*On the very next play, Orlando Cabrera slid to his right and threw Daric Barton out handily.  Mike Sweeney grounded out on the next pitch, leading to an eight-pitch, 1-2-3 frame for Danks.

*Leading off the seventh, Quentin (for the second straight game) ran into the wall at the same time Emil Brown's deep fly landed in his mitt.  It rattled around in the leather a bit, but it gave Danks another quick out.

*Leading off the eighth, Swisher picked up Cabrera, by coming off the bag and tagging Denorfia after Cabrera snagged a hot shot on a weird hop.

Danks, to his credit, let his defense work for him after getting the run support.  He temporarily fell out of sync in the fifth, getting behind 3-0 on Chris Denorfia and 2-0 on Donny Murphy in two consecutive at-bats.  After a mound visit, he froze Murphy for a strikeout and went on to throw first-pitch strikes to eight of the last 10 hitters he faced.

Oakland's defense helped Danks feel more comfortable as well by allowing an insurance run.  Third baseman Donny Murphy tried to nail Jermaine Dye after catching Paul Konerko's hard liner, but bounced the throw past Daric Barton.  Joe Crede followed by muscling a fastball into right-center for a 4-0 lead.  They threatened to add more when Bobby Crosby dropped a popup in the middle of the infield, putting runners on the corners, but Ramirez struck out -- after his requisite breaking of the bat on a foul ball, of course.

Other notes:

• Dana Eveland tried emulating Greg Smith's formula for success -- changeups away -- but the fastball-throwing Eveland didn't have the goods.  He didn't look comfortable, and Quentin's homer finally capitalized on his diminishing control.  He began the inning by plunking Paul Konerko and walking Crede.
• Ramirez had an interesting day, along with the throw and the broken bat.  He was about a foot away from his first homer (it resulted in a double) and flew out deep to left another time, but he also stumbled twice after big swings, twisting his ankle the second time.
• Pablo Ozuna is the front-runner for Super Scrub of the Week, going 0-for-3 including an ugly strikeout when he failed to move the runner over, and he also let a grounder eat him up.  It wasn't called an error.
• Scott Linebrink got into a bit of unnecessary trouble, walking Barton to start the ninth inning with a four-run lead.  Barton came around to score on a sacrifice fly, but Bobby Jenks ultimately shut the door by getting three outs on two pitches.

Record: 8-5 | Box score | Play-by-play