Thames powers Yankees past White Sox

Posted August 28, 2010 11:00 pm

By Mike Spellman

Even when CC was tossing BBs and Danks was firing blanks.

Even when the Yankees belted 2-run homers in each of the first three innings to jump out to a big lead.

Even when they padded their lead to 12-7 in the ninth inning while more than half of the sellout crowd already had decided to go while the getting was still good.

Even then, the White Sox refused to quit, eventually getting the tying run to the plate against Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, only to fall 12-9 to the defending champs Saturday night at U.S. Cellular Field.

"I'm not happy with the game because we lost, but I'm satisfied with the way we battled back," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Our hitters did a tremendous job against CC Sabathia and their bullpen."

"These guys battled their (butts) off; it was fun to watch," said starter John Danks (12-9), who left in the fifth inning having surrendered 8 runs. "Even in the end, making them go to Mariano and having runners on base -

"I take full responsibility. I'd like a better word for it, but I (stunk). It (stunk) that there were 38,000-plus here and they paid lot of money to see this game and it was supposed to be a fun game. From the get-go we were playing catch-up. We just have to move on, I guess."

It keeps getting tougher.

The loss was the Sox' eighth in their last 13 games and 12th in their last 19. It also was a crusher considering earlier Saturday the Minnesota Twins squeaked by Seattle 1-0 and now hold a 41/2-game lead over the Sox in the AL Central.

After falling behind 6-1, the Sox battled back and pulled within a run in the fourth courtesy of Andruw Jones' 18th home run, but then disaster struck in the next inning.

When two of the first three batters he faced reached base, Danks was pulled in favor of Tony Pena. After getting Marcus Thames swinging, Pena allowed a 2-run double to Jorge Posada that keyed 4-run outburst that really broke things open.

"I think the game changed when Posada hit that double," Guillen said. "Those 4 runs really hurt."

"You score 5 runs against CC Sabathia, you have to find a way to win the game because that's very rare," Danks said. "I need to be able to get us into the sixth, seventh or eighth innings."

But even though Danks didn't have it Saturday, the Sox offense refused to quit, scoring a pair of runs in the eighth and another two in the ninth to make things interesting. With Jones and Ramon Castro on base, Mark Teahan lined out to second to end the game.

"We came back and made those guys bring in the best closer in the game, so there's some satisfaction for us," Guillen said. "Meanwhile, every game for us is very big. Very, very important.

"No matter how well we play, a win is a win."

Mike Spellman's game tracker

Milestone HR? It sounds like a bit of a stretch, but since the Sox announced it during the game, we'll go with it: Paul Konerko's homer in the third inning was the 358th of his career, tying him with Yogi Berra for 73rd on the all-time list.

Crazy 8s: The 8 runs allowed by Sox starter John Danks matched a career high. The first time came May 29 in Tampa Bay.

Mr. Jones: Andruw Jones was 3-for-3, including a double and a home run, and he reached base safely in all 5 at-bats.

Leading man: Juan Pierre continued his hot streak with a pair of hits. He is hitting .438 in his last 10 games and has hit safely in 31 of his last 33 games.

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