2008 State of the Sox

June 26: White Sox 2, Dodgers 0

Bobby Jenks recorded his first 1-2-3 inning in more than a month, and it provided a fitting end to one of the strangest games of the year.

John Danks didn't record a single three up, three down frame.  He escaped only one inning with the bases empty thanks to a one-out double play, but otherwise faced some sort of trouble every other inning.

He even saw Juan Pierre reach base twice due to errors, and he ran wild on him.

And yet he lasted six scoreless innings.

Meanwhile, the Sox seemed like they had Clayton Kershaw figured out, as the highly touted southpaw couldn't make it out of the fifht.

And yet the two runs he gave up were the only ones the Dodgers allowed.

It was that kind of game, as the offenses kept finding ways to see potential rallies come to sudden ends.  Occasionally it was thanks to brilliant defense, and other times, it was simply a failure to execute.

Danks ran into trouble immediately when Toby Hall dropped a Juan Pierre pop-up behind the plate.  He'd eventually single after a battle, and he's steal second and third.  Danks found himself with runners on second and third and one out, but worked out of it with a soft lineout and a can of corn to right 

Pierre reached on another error two innings later when Orlando Cabrera couldn't handle a hard grounder to his left, and he'd make it to third on Matt Kemp's single with nobody out. 
But Danks bounced back by striking out Russell Martin with one of the best cutters he ever threw, and then getting James Loney to ground into a 4-6-3 DP, started with an Alexei Ramirez glove flip.

He faced runners on the corners thanks to his own miscue in the fourth.  With a runner on third and one out, Angel Berroa hit a chopper back to the mound.  Danks looked Andy LaRoche back, then threw to third and was a hair late.  Instead of getting the second out, he had first and third and nobody out.  He redeemed himself by snaring a liner off the bat of Danny Ardoin, then going to first for the double play.

Meanwhile, the Sox scored a run in the second and third with a couple of RBI singles by Ramirez (broken bat) and Carlos Quentin, but shot themselves in the feet in every other attempt to add to the lead:

*Danks tried to lay down a sac bunt with runners on the corners and nobody out, but bunted off the plate and thought it was foul.  Martin caught it in fair territory, however, and started a 2-6-3 double play.

*Joe Crede grounded into a 1-2-3 double play with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth.

The Sox stranded 11 overall ... and yet even with the dysfunctional offense once again, they managed to take a series on the road.

Record: 43-35 | Box score | Play-by-play