2008 State of the Sox

May 3: Blue Jays 5, White Sox 2

When John Danks was pulled from the game after 4 2/3 innings and 107 pitches, Toronto starter Jesse Litsch was sitting on the bench with 51 pitches.  And he had retired one more batter.

Litsch was the latest starter to play the hot knife to the White Sox lineup's butter, while Danks worked way too hard for little return.  He got into three-ball counts to nine of the 23 batters he faced, and he wasn't particularly erratic.  He only walked one and threw 68 of his 107 pitches for strikes.

However, the Blue Jays fouled a ton of pitches off and made him sweat.  He needed 35 pitches for his five strikeouts alone.  Add in the seven hits the Jays scattered, and it spelled a short day for Danks.  He left with a 2-0 deficit, when David Eckstein doubled in the first and scored, and a Marco Scutaro solo homer in the third.

For the second straight game, a Joe Crede error helped provided Toronto the winning margin with all unearned runs.  Octavio Dotel had already worked an adventurous inning by the time Crede got involved, going strikeout, walk, HBP and a single to load the bases.  But he came back and froze Eckstein, then got a weak chopper to third that should've ended the inning.

Something went wrong.  Crede gloved the grounder, but then lost it when he went to step on the bag.  He didn't have to make a quick move or anything -- he just flat out lost it.  A run crossed the plate, and then two more came around to score when Wells followed with a single, stretching the score to 5-1.

Jermaine Dye had provided the only Sox run at that point with a solo homer, Carlos Quentin added another one in the eighth, and that would be all for the offense.

Record: 14-14 | Box score | Play-by-play