Now that Jon Garland has moved on to the land of surfboards, the Sox rotation has an opening for a Stopper Jon. Aside from the unnecessary "h" in his first name, John Danks is filling the role quite nicely.
For the second game in a row, Danks took to the mound following a disheartening offensive performance the day before and dismissed talks of a losing streak. He held the Rays scoreless, allowing only three hits and zero walks while striking out eight. He only allowed one runner to reach scoring position, when Carl Crawford led off with a single. He advanced to second and third on a pair of fielder's choices, but was ultimately standed there when Evan Longoria popped out to Nick Swisher to end the inning.
The Rays never threatened otherwise. Perhaps the most impressive part of Danks' game is that he wasn't all that impressive in throwing first-pitch strikes -- he was just over 50 percent in that category. However, he never fell behind 2-0 to any of the 24 Tampa Bay hitters he faced, and the result was a quite economical 96 pitches over seven innings.
Meanwhile, the Sox offense shook off their first shutout of the season by chasing Edwin Jackson out of the game in the fifth inning. With one out in the fifth, Nick Swisher fell behind 0-2, only to watch Jackson throw him four straight pitches out of the strike zone. Thus began the game-sealing rally.
Elliot Johnson couldn't glove Orlando Cabrera's chopper to put runners on first and second, and Jim Thome lined a single to center for his third straight run-scoring hit in as many at-bats, with Swisher getting his foot in just before Shawn Riggins' tag (though he didn't carry the ball with him). Jermaine Dye spelled the end for Jackson when he lined a 3-2 fastball through the left-center gap into the deepest part of the park. It was a two-run triple for Dye, his first since
Sept. 9, 2006.
Dye would score on an A.J. Pierzynski single, and although the inning would end with strikeouts of Joe Crede and Brian Anderson, the Sox had all the runs they needed. Anderson had a particularly rough go of it, striking out three times in four at-bats.
Thome drove in the Sox's first two runs of the game, beginning with his 512th career homer in the first inning, a solo shot. He also singled to center to score Juan Uribe in the third, after Uribe walked and went from first to third on a dumb play by Riggins. Uribe took off with a full count, and with the pitch way out of the zone, Riggins threw to second anyway, overthrowing it in the process.
Boone Logan sealed the deal with two scoreless innings, rebounding well from his unraveling against Baltimore.
Record: 11-7 |
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