John Danks had a warm feeling on a windy, rainy
night and his Chicago White Sox out of the playoff race.
Danks (13-10) pitched his first career complete game for his
first win in more than a month as Chicago beat the Cleveland
Indians 6-1 on Monday night.
"It's the first time I've thrown a pitch in a ninth inning, so
it was fun," Danks said after ending the game with his seventh
strikeout for a three-hitter in his first complete game at any
level since being drafted in 2003 by Texas. "They had such strict
pitch counts (in the minors) with Texas and I haven't been
efficient enough to do it in the majors."
Gordon Beckham drove in three runs to help Chicago to its third
win in four games following a stretch of seven losses in eight
games.
Cleveland came in one-half game ahead of last-place Kansas City
in the AL Central after sweeping a three-game series from
Baltimore. The Indians, trying to avoid a last-place finish for the
first time since going a franchise-worst 57-101 in 1991, are 6-20
in September. A year ago, they went 32-17 down the stretch to
finish at .500 - giving hope to fans that the Indians could return
to contention after winning the division in 2007.
Shin-Soo Choo hit his 19th homer leading off the seventh to
break up Danks' bid for his first career shutout, but the
left-hander was determined to try and close it out.
"He came to me and said he wanted to do it and our bullpen is a
little worn, so why not?" Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said.
"I'm very careful about pitch counts and we had somebody warming
up."
Danks threw 115 pitches in bouncing back from an 8-6 loss to
Minnesota on Tuesday in which he gave up three homers and seven
runs in six innings. He had been 0-2 in five starts since beating
the Boston Red Sox on Aug. 27 - but set a career high in wins, one
more than he had last year.
The White Sox are 2-0 since blowing a 5-0 lead and losing 12-5
to the Detroit Tigers on Saturday. Some players drew Guillen's
wrath afterward for watching college football on TV in the
clubhouse.
"We got to go out there and compete," Guillen said. "That's
the reason I got mad Saturday. You're paid a lot of money to be
here and you have to go through the season. I don't want you to go
through the motions.
"Danks showed people we're out of it, but we can still give our
all. Hopefully this is the first of many complete games to come.
You don't see young guys go all the way that much any more."
The White Sox took a 3-0 lead in the second against Aaron Laffey
(7-8) without hitting the ball hard. They loaded the bases on three
consecutive one-out singles - then scored three times without
hitting a ball out of the infield.
Brent Lillibridge topped a two-out roller that third baseman
Jhonny Peralta charged but could not field cleanly between the foul
line and the mound. It was ruled an RBI single.
Laffey hit DeWayne Wise with a pitch to force in a run and
Beckham grounded a ball up the middle that was fielded behind
second base by Jamey Carroll. Wise slid in safely before shortstop
Asdrubal Cabrera took the flip from Carroll at the bag as another
run scored.
Beckham's two-run double off Jensen Lewis made it 5-1 in the
ninth. Beckham then scored on a throwing error by center fielder
Trevor Crowe, who fielded Paul Konerko's single and threw home
wildly. Beckham went to third when catcher Lou Marson retrieved the
ball and tossed it past Lewis attempting to cover home.
"It's happened too many times," Indians manager Eric Wedge
said of Crowe's offline throw. "He has to be more under control.
The play got real ugly after that because he did overthrow the
cutoff man. He's going to have to be better than that."
Danks held the Indians hitless until Choo doubled with two outs
in the fourth, finally reversing his fortunes against Cleveland. He
had been 1-5 with a 5.63 ERA in nine previous starts against the
Indians, posting a 10.54 ERA in losing his last three.
Laffey lost his fifth straight start, allowing three runs and
eight hits over 7 1-3 innings. Cleveland has totaled 12 runs of
support during the five losses. The left-hander is 0-5 in seven
starts since beating Minnesota on Aug. 16.
NOTES: Cleveland signed 15 Latin American teenagers, two from
Panama, six from Venezuela and seven from the Dominican Republic.
... Wedge said rookie LHP David Huff will not pitch again this
season. Wedge said Huff, whose 11 wins lead the club, had reached
an innings limit prescribed for young pitchers. ... Guillen said
RHP Gavin Floyd, bothered by a sore hip for a month, probably won't
pitch again this season. Floyd is 11-11 with a 4.06 ERA in 30
starts. ... Choo has hit .329 (52 for 158) with six homers in his
last 39 games.
