Sox sweep Angels as Danks throws complete-game shutout

After sitting through rain delays and playing deep into the night on Tuesday and Wednesday, a bleary-eyed bunch of White Sox reported to U.S. Cellular Field on Thursday afternoon looking for a little pick-me-up, as well as a four-game sweep over the Angels.

They got both.

"Everyone on both teams are beaten up and tired, and the bullpens are used," Paul Konerko said. "It's just been a couple of long nights, so both starting pitchers did exactly what you hoped they would do."

Fortunately for the Sox, John Danks did his job slightly better than Los Angeles counterpart Ervin Santana.

Delivering the first complete game shutout of his career, Danks limited the Angels to just 2 hits - back-to-back singles by Reggie Willits and Howie Kendrick to open the seventh inning.

Santana only allowed 3 hits, but Konerko's sacrifice fly in the first inning was all the offense Danks would need in a 1-0 win. The game lasted just 1-hour and 50-minutes, the White Sox' quickest since June 1, 2007.

"A day like today, you don't want to be standing out there, you don't want your defense standing around," Danks said. "(Catcher) A.J. (Pierzynski) did a great job. I just followed his lead. I was just getting the ball and whatever he put down, it seemed to be the same pitch I wanted to throw. Fortunately, it was the right pitch most of the time."

Pierzynski gave Danks all of the credit after the Sox swept a four-game series from the Angels for the first time since 1983.

"He had the best slider he's had in a long time," Pierzynski said. "We just kept throwing slider after slider. We'd get behind in the count, ahead in the count, and he kept jamming them and getting popups. He deserves the credit because we didn't do anything offensively. Santana was as good as John was. We just got that run early in the first and made it stand up."

Danks said the thought of pitching a no-hitter was definitely on his mind.

"Fifth inning," he said. "Anyone that says they don't think about it is a liar. You know immediately what's going on out there. Actually, as weird as it sounds, it was pretty fortunate that it was a 1-0 game because you can't get ahead of yourself. The job at hand is still to win the ballgame. As nice as it would have been to throw a no-hitter, the main priority is to win the ballgame."

The White Sox have won five straight and 18 of their last 22 while pulling within one-half game of the idle Tigers in the AL Central.

They likely lost Jake Peavy for the season on Tuesday night, but the starters are 17-5 with a 2.35 ERA and 25 quality outings in the last 28 games.

"I think we've had the same mentality that we've had from Day 1," Danks said. "You don't want to be the weak link. You want to be the guy to go out there and put the pressure on the next guy. Especially during our (11-game) winning streak, you didn't want to be the guy to break the streak. Right now, we feel like you want to go out there and give the team a better chance to win."

Not only did Danks do just that, he gave the Sox' bullpen a needed breather by going the distance.

"I think this could have been the biggest game we had this year," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "I didn't want to overuse the guys out of the bullpen, they've been up for three or four days in a row to help us to win. This was a big game for us. This game just didn't count for today, it counts for tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday to give those guys out of the bullpen a little bit of a break. It's all about pitching, that's it."

Scouting reportWhite Sox vs. Kansas City Royals at U.S. Cellular FieldTV: Comcast SportsNet today and Sunday; Channel 9 SaturdayRadio: WSCR 670-AMPitching matchups: The Sox' Mark Buehrle (7-7, 4.53 ERA) vs. Bruce Chen (5-2, 3.51) today at 7:10 p.m.; Gavin Floyd (4-7, 4.43) vs. Brian Bannister (7-6, 5.54) Saturday at 6:05 p.m.; TBA vs. Zack Greinke (5-8, 3.71) Sunday at 1:05 p.m.At a glance: The White Sox have the best record in baseball since June 9 at 22-5, but they've struggled against the Royals and dropped two of three at Kauffman Stadium last week. Overall, they are 4-5 vs. Kansas City (2-1 at home). Buehrle is 4-1 with a 2.70 ERA over his last 5 starts, but he's 0-2 with a 5.84 against the Royals this season. Chen, a left-hander, is holding right-handed hitters to a .205 batting average, which ranks third in the American League. Daniel Hudson is expected to start for the Sox on Sunday.Next: All-star breakFalse512453White Sox starter John Danks through a 2-hit, complete game shutout against the Los Angeles Angels Thursday to sweep the four-game series.Associated PressFalse <p class="factboxheadblack">Scot Gregor's game tracker</p><p class="News">White Sox 1, Angels 0</p><p class="News"><b>Armed and dangerous:</b> John Danks had a no-hitter until Reggie Willits led off the seventh inning with a single past diving shortstop Alexei Ramirez. Over the last seven games, Sox pitchers have allowed just 12 earned runs in 62 innings (1.74 ERA).</p><p class="News"><b>Day dreaming:</b> The White Sox are 19-9 in day games this season.</p><p class="News"><b>Back on track:</b> A.J. Pierzynski's single in the second inning snapped an 0-for-14 hitless streak.</p><div class="infoBox"><h1>More Coverage</h1><div class="infoBoxContent"><div class="infoArea"><h2>Stories</h2><ul class="links"><li><a href="/story/?id=392860">Sox aren't crying over Peavy's injury<span class="date"> [7/8/10]</span></a></li></ul></div></div></div>