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White Sox Thu Jun 10 2010
Danks Gets Back on Track for Sox
It's hard to ascribe much importance to individual White Sox wins and losses these days, what with their general manager talking openly about the possibility of dealing away any number of high-priced veterans. But if 2011 is fast overtaking 2010, there are plenty of questions that need answering in the coming months -- and chief among them is what the franchise can realistically expect going forward from potential building blocks such as John Danks, Gordon Beckham and Gavin Floyd.
That why Thursday afternoon was such a delight. Danks, after starting the season strong, had been awful his past two outings, but he bounced back in a big way in the last of three games with Detroit. The fourth-year left-hander isn't really built to dominate hitters, but he hit his spots and kept the Tigers off balance with his changeup, leading Chicago to a 3-0 win and a rare series win heading into this weekend's matchup with the Cubs.
<< WHITE SOX 3, TIGERS 0 >>
Backed by two RBIs from Omar Vizquel -- one on a solo homer, one on a suicide squeeze -- Danks (5-5) allowed one hit and four walks in seven scoreless innings, striking out four. He hit the outside corner and ran the ball inside when needed. He threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of the 24 hitters he faced, needing only 28 pitches the first time through the order.
Perhaps his best moment came with two outs in the fourth, after he fell behind 2-0 to Miguel Cabrera, a Triple Crown contender who ranks with the best hitters in baseball. Pitchers tend to be at his mercy in that spot, but Danks buried the next two pitches in on Cabrera's hands, getting him to foul them back. The battle ended with a walk, but with the Sox protecting a 1-0 lead at the time, the damage might have been far worse.
Danks faded a bit toward the end, walking three hitters in his final two innings, but he escaped trouble with a 4-6-3 double play after putting Cabrera on to start the seventh. After another walk, he got Brandon Inge to fly out to end the threat.
"We've been saying all along that we're better than what we've done, so we know we can go out there and get outs, go deep in a game and give us a chance to win every time out," Danks told reporters. "This might be the run that gets us on a roll."
DET -- 000 000 000 -- 0 3 0
CWS -- 100 001 01x -- 3 5 0
