White Sox’ Danks thinking no hitter into sixth

John Danks was thinking about it.

Long before Billy Butler reached on a bad-hop single past first baseman Brent Lillibridge with two outs in the sixth inning, Danks knew he had a no-hitter going.

“I knew I had it going from the third inning on, I’m not going to lie to you,” Danks said. “It’s one of those things, you have a long way to go.

“Fortunately, we had enough runs on the board where it wasn’t blocking trying to win a ballgame. I was trying to get early contact just like I always do.”

Butler’s single initially was ruled an error on Lillibridge but was quickly changed to a hit. Any potential dispute ended when Jeff Francoeur followed with a double.

Danks wound up allowing 2 runs on 4 hits in the sixth inning, and his day was over with his pitch count at 105.

“I had the best stuff I’ve had in awhile,” Danks said. “I was able to throw my fastball for strikes; I felt like I had a little extra life on it. The cutter was big and sharp and hard.

“I think it was a mix of me trying to harness that and them kind of swinging through some, too. The walks didn’t help and the pitch count got up there pretty quick today, but we won.”

Still sore:Paul Konerko was the White Sox#146; designated hitter for the 11th straight game, and he went 3-for-3 while extending his hitting streak to 11.Konerko wants to return to first base as early as Tuesday, but that#146;s not likely to happen.#147;It was OK last night,#148; Konerko said of his sore left leg. #147;Today I was sore because it was such a late night last night and then come back with a day game. I don#146;t read too much into that. Most times you are sore in that circumstance anyways.#147;Just keep getting work on it and try to work it out of there. I would like to get back out to first as soon as I can. I#146;m hoping the next couple of games.#148;Starting stuff:The White Sox are back to using a six-man rotation, with Zach Stewart pitching out of the final spot the past two turns.The Sox are off Monday, and they have two days off next week, so it#146;s likely they#146;ll return to the standard five-man rotation for the stretch run.#147;We don#146;t know yet,#148; manager Ozzie Guillen said. #147;We don#146;t know because it depends on how things go in the next couple of days. I think a few people need an extra day but we#146;ll see how that thing works from Tuesday on.#148;Phil Humber will start Thursday#146;s game against the Cleveland Indians, and he might need a solid outing to stay in the rotation.The Sox#146; top starter during the first half, Humber appears to have run out of gas while going 0-4 with a 7.51 ERA in last 5 starts.