Danks, White Sox make it 7 straight
Over the first two-plus months of the season, the White Sox were down but not counting themselves completely out of the race.
Now that the good times are continuing to roll, the Sox are up, but not going over the top.
"Nothing's really changed in here," starting pitcher John Danks said after the White Sox rallied past the Braves 9-6 Tuesday night at U.S. Cellular Field while pushing their winning streak to seven games. "As for the mood, the only thing that's changed is the record. We're back in the mix now."
They certainly seem to be.
With their 11th win in 12 games, the Sox pulled within 41/2 games of the Twins in the AL Central, and they're 3 behind the second-place Tigers. A week ago the White Sox trailed Minnesota by 91/2 games.
Atlanta came in with a five-game winning streak and a 34-14 record since April 30.
"The Braves are a real good team, but we're just carrying the momentum into each game," Juan Pierre said. "I think we're a good baseball team, and we've been showing it the last couple of weeks. We've got a lot of guys that have been around, and we know that when we get on a roll like this, you just try to ride it out as long as possible."
Atlanta jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, and Sox manager Ozzie Guillen remembers the not-so-distant past when that would have been a near impossible deficit to overcome.
"It would be like, 'OK, we'll see what happens,' " Guillen said. "But they did a good job making him (Braves starter Tommy Hanson) throw strikes and we made pretty good contact. Those guys are swinging the bats real good right now."
The White Sox jumped on Hanson in the second inning, sending 10 hitters to the plate and scoring 5 runs on 6 hits.
A.J. Pierzynski and Omar Vizquel each had 2-run singles as the Sox surged ahead and cruised along until Scott Linebrink allowed 2 runs before being replaced by Bobby Jenks with two outs in the ninth inning.
"We played well," Pierzynski said. "Obviously, facing a really good team that's been playing really well, to come back after falling down early against one of the best pitchers in their league is good. We battled tonight, we took advantage of some mistakes and hit the ball well. And John pitched well after the second inning.
"We're just playing better. We just need to keep going. We've been playing well, and it's nice to win some games and get the confidence going and get things rolling. This is the way we expected to play from Day One, and now we're finally getting there and hopefully we can keep it up for the rest of the way."
Shortstop Alexei Ramirez, who along with Pierzynski and Paul Konerko had 3 hits, had to leave the game in the ninth inning with an injured right middle finger. Ramirez appeared to split his nail, and his status is unknown for Wednesday night.
<p class="factboxheadblack">Scot Gregor's game tracker</p>
<p class="News">White Sox 9, Braves 6</p>
<p class="News"><b>Making contact:</b> Led by Paul Konerko, A.J. Pierzynski and Alexei Ramirez, who all had 3 hits, and Carlos Quentin, who hit the club's first home run in nine games (a 3-run shot in the fourth inning), the Sox tied a season high with 16 hits and overcame a 3-0 deficit.</p>
<p class="News"><b>Feats and famine:</b> White Sox starter John Danks pitched 7 innings and allowed 3 runs on 6 hits while improving to 5-1 (1.67 ERA) in 8 career interleague starts. Atlanta starter Tommy Hanson allowed a career high in runs (9) and hits (13) and dropped to 4-1 in interleague play.</p>
<p class="News"><b>Classy move:</b> Before the game, Ozzie Guillen presented Braves manager Bobby Cox with a humidor. Cox, one of Guillen's mentors, is retiring at the end of the season.</p>
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