Danks, Sox stop the bleeding in 4-1 win over Rays
A 4-9 start had many White Sox fans ripping up their season tickets and calling for manager Ozzie Guillen and hitting coach Greg Walker - among others - to be terminated.
General manager Kenny Williams understood the umbrage.
"You can't have it both ways," Williams said. "If you have a passionate fan base you have to be prepared for a heightened sense of urgency or worry when things don't go your way, just as you are the beneficiary of extreme excitement when it does go your way.
"You've got to take the good and bad with it. Right now everyone is a little upset with the way we're playing. So are we."
Thanks to starting pitcher John Danks and the power bats of Paul Konerko, Andruw Jones and Alex Rios, the air on the South Side is a little lighter following a 4-1 win Tuesday night over Tampa Bay at U.S. Cellular Field.
For the third time in as many starts, Danks was dominant.
"That might have been one of the best games I've seen him throw the ball," Guillen said after Danks bulled his way through 8 innings, holding the Rays to 1 run on 2 hits while striking out nine.
Carl Crawford homered on a pitch out of the strike zone with one out in the first inning to give Tampa Bay the early edge, but that was the extent of the damage.
"I felt real good," Danks said. "The first few innings I didn't have much of a changeup, but (catcher) A.J. (Pierzynski) did a good job sticking with it.
"The last probably four innings or so, it really came along and it was a pitch I was leaning heavily on. Throughout the course of the game I had a couple pitches working for me which really helped and even at the end of the game I felt like I could throw four pitches at any time."
Backed by Konerko's run-scoring double in the first inning and solo homer in the eighth, Rios circling the bases and scoring on a triple and error in the second and Jones hitting a solo homer in the sixth inning, the White Sox returned home and promptly snapped a four-game losing streak.
"We're going to go out there and try to win every game," Danks said. "We've been saying all along that we're way better than what we've been playing. I truly believe that. I think it's just a matter of time before we start clicking and hopefully it started tonight."
Williams wasn't with the Sox when they were losing three straight to the Indians at Cleveland over the weekend. When the impatient GM met with the media before Tuesday's game, he was surprisingly calm.
"I have to manage myself a little better in terms of that football mentality I've had it in the past, where I watch every baseball game, 162 games, like a football game," Williams said. "Try having that stress on your body and see how you feel at the end of the season.
"That's part of my own management, of my own being. In addition to that, up until you play a couple months of the season you really don't know what type of team you do have."
For one night at least, the White Sox played like a good one.
<p class="factboxheadblack">Scot Gregor's game tracker</p>
<p class="News">White Sox 4, Rays 1</p>
<p class="News"><b>Danks delivers:</b> Starting pitcher John Danks allowed just 1 run over 8 innings while tying his career best for fewest hits allowed (2). The 25-year-old lefty also had 9 strikeouts and lowered his ERA to 1.29. Among AL starters, only Tampa Bay's Matt Garza (0.75 ERA) is better.</p>
<p class="News"><b>Price is right:</b> Paul Konerko hit a run-scoring double off Rays starter David Price in the first inning and singled in the fourth. He's a career 4-for-6 vs. Price. Konerko added a solo HR off reliever Dan Wheeler in the eighth inning.</p>
<p class="News"><b>Mr. Jones:</b> Andruw Jones was 2-for-4 with a solo home run. He's batting .417 (10-for-24) with a double, 4 HR and 7 RBI in his last seven games.</p>
<p class="News"><b>Skid's over:</b> A.J. Pierzynski ended an 0-for-11 slump with a single in the sixth inning.</p>
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