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Danks helps White Sox salvage split with A's

Jul 6, 2008 - 11:00 PM By Gene Chamberlain PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Chicago White Sox lefthander John Danks nearly has a great effort spoiled by his bullpen.

Danks carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning Sunday and Chicago's bullpen barely held on to preserve a 4-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

Danks (6-4) struck out a career-high nine and yielded four hits and two walks over 6 1/3 innings.

"I felt like I had a pretty good fastball, especially in the early going," Danks said. "I was able to get that in there. The rest of it was kind of hit or miss. Fortunately, the guys made some plays for me today and we were able to keep them off balance."

Although Chicago's relievers continue to lead the major leagues with a 2.73 ERA, they're facing hard times without injured closer Bobby Jenks.

Chicago had scratched out a 3-0 lead for Danks and survived Oakland's rally behind relievers Octavio Dotel, Matt Thornton and temporary closer Scott Linebrink.

Linebrink had given up ninth-inning home runs Saturday against Oakland and Wednesday against Cleveland while filling in for Jenks, who likely is out until Tuesday with a back injury.

Linebrink allowed three ninth-inning hits Sunday, including Mark Ellis' two-out RBI single, which cut Oakland's deficit to 4-3. However, he escaped a first-and-second, two-out jam by getting Jack Cust to fly to right field to end the game and secure his first save of the year.

"It's never easy," Linebrink said. "Sometimes it's not always pretty, either. Things got a little hairy there at the end."

The White Sox face a possible prolonged period without Jenks, who has soreness below his left shoulder blade. Manager Ozzie Guillen had earlier said Jenks would return Tuesday, but said after Sunday's win that Jenks may wind up on the disabled list through the All-Star break.

"We'll go by ear and see how we're doing and see how he's reacting the next couple days," Guillen said. "If not, we have to go to Plan B."

Guillen was, however, very pleased with the way Danks pitched.

"He knows he can pitch in big situations against good ballclubs," Guillen said. "I think he just will keep trying to go out there and continiue to do that. We're not going to take care of him like he was a kid like we did last year."

A two-out throwing error that put Carlos Quentin on first base in the first inning led to a run because of a brief wild spurt by Oakland starter Rich Harden (5-1), who suffered his first loss of the season. He gave up a single to Jermaine Dye before walking both Jim Thome and Joe Crede to force in a run.

In the fourth, Alexei Ramirez followed Crede's one-out single and Nick Swisher's walk with an RBI single to center, then Swisher beat Rajai Davis' throw to the plate on Dewayne Wise's sacrifice fly to center, extending the advantage to 3-0.

Harden, who spent more than a month on the disabled list with a shoulder strain, gave up three runs - two earned - and five hits. He walked four and struck out four.

"I threw a lot of pitches in that first inning which definitely cost me an inning," Harden said. "It seemed like there were always runners on in every inning. I was just missing some spots. It was just one of those days."

The Athletics knocked Danks out in the seventh when Emil Brown doubled, Daric Barton hit a one-out single and Rob Bowen hit a two-run double down the right field line, making the score 3-2.

The A's loaded the bases against Dotel with a walk by Gregorio Petit and a fielding error by third baseman Crede. However, Dotel got Ellis on a grounder to Crede to end the threat.

The White Sox padded the lead in the seventh with a critical run when Wise doubled to right off A's reliever Santiago Casilla, moved up on Orlando Cabrera's grounder to short and scored on A.J. Pierzynski's sacrifice fly to left field.