Sox give thanks for Danks
When it was over Wednesday, manager Ozzie Guillen sat in his cramped office at Wrigley Field and touched on all things good during the White Sox' 4-1 interleague win over the rival Cubs.
There was Alexei Ramirez's solo home run in the first inning off Ryan Dempster that gave the Sox an instant shot of confidence.
"Dempster pitched real well last year against us in this building," Guillen said. "We started the right way and after that we did a lot of different things that worked out for us."
There was Brian Anderson's one-out single in the second inning, followed by Chris Getz's RBI triple into the right-field corner.
"That was huge," Guillen said.
And don't forget about the seventh inning. After Getz drew a leadoff walk and Gordon Beckham followed with another free pass to chase Dempster, White Sox starter John Danks moved Getz to third base with a fielder's choice groundout.
Scott Podsednik followed with a perfect suicide squeeze bunt to score Getz and make it 3-0 before the Sox and Cubs traded runs in the eighth.
"This ballclub hits so many groundballs and double plays, I tried to get out of the small inning," Guillen said of calling for the squeeze. "I almost did it before (in the second inning), but it was too early."
Good stuff all around, but Guillen reserved his greatest praise for Danks (5-5), who worked out of two early jams and earned the win after pitching 7 innings and allowing 1 run on 5 hits.
"The key of this game was John Danks," Guillen said.
The Cubs agreed.
"He did his job," right fielder Milton Bradley said. "He threw his fastball to both sides of the plate, elevated it when he wanted to. Had a good changeup, good arm action on his changeup. Other than that, he (stunk).
Bradley smiled after the last sentence, but Danks sent a stream of unhappy North Side hitters back to the dugout while lifting the White Sox to their third straight win.
"I think so," Danks said when asked if Wednesday was one of his better outings of the season. "The amount of strikes I threw and no walks, that's huge. That's been kind of the burr in my boot, as they say back home (in Texas). It was huge to go out and throw strikes and put the ball in play."
Danks finished with 9 strikeouts, but he coaxed contact while dodging early trouble.
In the second inning, Derrek Lee led off with a single and Geovany Soto reached on third baseman Gordon Beckham's error.
After that, Reed Johnson grounded into a double play and Mike Fontenot grounded out.
The Cubs got back-to-back singles from Ryan Theriot and Bradley to start the fourth inning, but Danks kept calm and retired the next three hitters.
"I think pitching here last year really helped, knowing what the atmosphere here was going to be like," Danks said of his Wrigley debut. "I really didn't have the jitters I had last year, so I could focus on throwing strikes."
Of the 99 pitches Danks threw, a remarkable 71 were in the strike zone.
"He threw the ball great," catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. "He had (four) pitches going - a changeup, a fastball, a good cutter, a slider. He threw the ball in and out and up and down and put it where he wanted to. That's what John can do."
Scot Gregor's game tracker
White Sox 4, Cubs 1
Danks dazzles: In addition to allowing only 1 earned run over 7 innings, Sox starter John Danks had 9 strikeouts. That is the highest "K" total for a White Sox starter against the Cubs since interleague play began in 1997.
Pressure's on: The Sox had at least one base runner in every inning.
Doing it all: Brian Anderson had a single, drew a walk, scored a run and made two nice catches in center field.
Looking ahead: A.J. Pierzynski is a career 5-for-15 vs. Carlos Zambrano, who starts for the Cubs today. Paul Konerko is 7-for-22 with 4 HR and 6 RBI. Jermaine Dye is only 3-for-15.