Sox breathe sigh of relief despite 8-7 loss

The White Sox survived the scariest moment of the season Sunday when right fielder Jermaine Dye went down in a heap after being hit on the right knee in the fourth inning, but they couldn't survive yet another in a recent spate of scary efforts by their starting pitchers, dropping an 8-7 decision to Kansas City.

"I just watched an ugly-(bleep) game," was Sox manager Ozzie Guillen's summation.

This time the culprit on the hill was starting pitcher John Danks. After his first 10 pitches Sunday, Danks found himself trailing 2-0 with runners on first and third, no outs and another restless crowd stirring a day after an ugly thumping to the lowly Royals.

Danks got out of the inning down just 4-0, but was gone after 3 innings having, allowed 6 earned runs.

"I almost felt too good," Danks said. "I felt like I could've thrown harder than I've ever thrown.

"I was even telling myself not to overthrow but I must've been, because I was getting them up in the zone."

For Dye, the problem was that Royals' reliever Horacio Ramirez got one of his pitches way too inside the zone in the fourth. It was the second straight game Dye was hit by a pitch.

After writhing in pain for a few minutes and having to be helped off the field, the good news for Dye came in the form of this diagnosis: bruised right knee, X-rays negative, day-to-day.

"He's a tough guy; I've never seen him helped off the field like that," first baseman Paul Konerko said. "I'm glad it was a different place than it was (Saturday) night."

Dye became the sixth Sox batter to be plunked by Kansas City in the series, way more than Guillen could take.

"I don't like the way they were hitting my players," Guillen said.

Perhaps it was coincidence that in the very next inning freshly called-up reliever D.J. Carrasco threw one near the knees of Billy Butler. But Carrasco just missed and a reaction shot of the Sox dugout showed Guillen slamming a cup of water to the ground in apparent disgust.

"We haven't talked yet," Carrasco said when asked if he had spoken to his skipper.

"Just tried to throw a sinker in and we got warned - that's it," catcher A.J. Pierzynski said of the pitch.

After fighting back to take the lead on a Nick Swisher homer in the seventh, the Sox saw that lead evaporate the very next inning. Their last best chance to tie the game came in the eighth after Pierzynski's one-out double, but on Brian Anderson's single to left, Pierzynski was dead to rights at home thanks to a perfect throw by Jose Guillen.

"I know Guillen has one of the best arms in baseball," Pierzynski said. "My job is to run until someone stops me. (Third base coach Jeff) was waving me and Guillen threw a perfect throw. When you're out by that much you can't really run over the catcher, you can't really slide, you just kind of pull up and hope for a miracle."

It never came.

And to think a day that started on such a high note for the Sox, who watched as former great and current coach Harold Baines was immortalized in bronze, could end with such a thud.

"The Baines ceremony, that was the best thing that happened all day - that and the hitting," Guillen said. "If we want to be in the pennant race we've got to pitch better than this."