Sox’ Danks finally gets a win

Give John Danks credit for being a good listener.

Or — and we’ll continue to pile on here — blame Adam Dunn and Alex Rios for tuning out the wisdom of White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen.

Before Monday’s start against the Mariners at U.S. Cellular Field, Guillen was asked about Danks and his 0-8 record.

“I want John Danks to not worry about his record,” Guillen said. “I want John Danks to do what I told Rios and Dunn to do … it’s not what you did for the last two months, it’s what you can do for the next three or four months.

“The games he lost, the games he pitched bad, the games he pitched good, you have to throw everything in the garbage and worry about what you can do from now on.”

While Dunn and Rios still are attracting flies, Danks went out against Seattle, pitched 7⅓ standout innings and finally bagged his first win of the season as the Sox sweated out a 3-1 victory over Seattle.

Danks has kept his head held high while matching Eddie Smith (1942) as the first White Sox pitcher to open a season at 0-8.

But the left-hander obviously was relieved after getting the elusive victory.

“It’s definitely big,” Danks said after allowing 1 unearned run on 7 hits. “It’s too bad it took two months, but better late than never, I guess.

“I’d be lying to you if I said it hasn’t been tough. A lot of beating myself up. Not doubting myself, but at the same time wondering when it’s going to turn around.”

Let’s be clear about one thing — Danks did not deserve to be 0-8.

He entered Monday’s outing receiving just 3.07 runs per game, the sixth-lowest support in the American League. And 7 of his first 11 starts were quality.

No wonder Sox general manager Kenny Williams was so quick to back his pitcher over the weekend.

“John Danks, for my money, still is one of the best pitchers in the American League,” Williams said. “Believe me, if I put him on the market today, what time is it, 4:54? If I put him on the market, I would have a (heck) of a lot of calls before 5 o’clock wanting him.”

But Danks did have his problems, as indicated by that 5.25 ERA heading into his start against Seattle. The left-hander got that down to 4.75, and we’ll let White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski explain why.

“That looked like the old John,” Pierzynski said. “We’ve been trying and trying and trying and working and working and working to get him to where he needs to be. No one can be as happy for John as me.”

According to Pierzynski, there are two huge reasons Danks finally broke through.

“He finally found his slider and he finally found his changeup,” Pierzynski said. “The two pitches he’s relied on heavily throughout his career are the slider and the changeup. When you can’t throw either one, it kind of limits your options as a catcher and a pitcher as to what you can call and what you can throw.

“With John, his slider hasn’t been doing the right thing and his changeup’s been a little bit hard. That kind of puts you behind the 8-ball.

“Tonight he had it all going and hopefully that’ll be the kick-start.”

sgregor@dailyherald.com