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Danks leads White Sox past Mariners 6-1

Jul 27, 2010 - 3:50 AM By JAY COHEN AP Sports Writer

CHICAGO(AP) -- John Danks is on quite a roll, and right at home facing the American League's best pitchers.

Just ask Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners.

Danks pitched eight solid innings to win his fourth consecutive start, helping the Chicago White Sox beat Hernandez and the Mariners 6-1 on Monday night.

"Whenever you score runs off Felix Hernandez, arguably the best pitcher in baseball, it's nice," Danks said. "Watching him throw, he had Nintendo stuff out there. I can't imagine trying to hit some of the stuff he was throwing out there.

"But these guys do a good job and we have 100 percent confidence in these guys. We know they're capable of scoring runs."

Danks wasn't bad himself.

"He's throwing strikes, painting both sides of the plate, kept a lot of our hitters off balance," Seattle manager Don Wakamatsu said.

Juan Pierre and Alexei Ramirez each had three hits for the White Sox, who kicked off a seven-game homestand with their season-high eighth consecutive victory at U.S. Cellular Field. It's their longest home winning streak since a nine-game surge in 2008.

Danks (11-7) allowed a run and six hits, improving to 7-2 with a 2.83 ERA in his last nine outings. The left-hander is 3-0 with a 1.14 ERA in three starts against Seattle this season, including 7 2-3 crisp innings in Chicago's 4-0 victory at Safeco Field last Tuesday.

"He's got a huge heart," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "This kid, just every time he's out there, he just fights every pitch."

Chicago grabbed control with two runs in the sixth. Paul Konerko led off with a towering drive down the left-field line for his 22nd homer and Ramirez added a two-out RBI double that made it 4-1.

AL Central-leading Chicago almost had a bigger inning but Ichiro Suzuki robbed Mark Kotsay of a two-run homer, hauling in the drive with a perfectly timed leap at the right-field wall.

"That was pretty good," Hernandez said. "That was a good play. He saved me two runs right there. In this ballpark, any fly ball could be out."

Suzuki was the lone highlight for Seattle, also collecting two hits at the plate. Jack Wilson delivered an RBI single in the third for the Mariners' only run.

Hernandez (7-7) ran his scoreless streak against the White Sox to 25 2-3 innings before Pierre and Omar Vizquel hit consecutive RBI singles with two out in the third, giving Chicago a 2-1 lead.

Mariners center fielder Franklin Gutierrez almost cut down Ramirez when he scored on Pierre's hit, but his throw was a little off, just a tad up the third-base line. The play allowed Pierre to move to second, setting up Vizquel's at-bat.

That was more than enough for Danks, who is closing in on his career-high 13 wins from last year. Suzuki's infield hit put runners on first and second in the eighth but Danks got speedy Chone Figgins to hit into an inning-ending double play, pumping his left arm as he bounded off the mound toward the home dugout.

"He was pretty lights-out today," catcher A.J. Pierzynski said.

Hernandez allowed four runs and nine hits in seven innings. He has pitched at least seven innings in each of his last nine starts.

The Mariners have scored nine runs in Hernandez's seven losses this season.

"I pitch my game," Hernandez said. "I do my job. I separate anything else happening. I'm not worried about wins and losses. I just want to do my job."

Sergio Santos finished the six-hitter as Chicago improved 6-1 against the Mariners this season.

NOTES: Chicago general manager Kenny Williams hinted that the White Sox talked to the Diamondbacks about Dan Haren before the right-hander was traded to the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday. "Yesterday was a little bit of a surprise because that came together very quickly," Williams said. "Listen, all I can tell you is my phone is right here on my hip. Things happen fast and you've got to be prepared to sometimes give very quick answers and decide whether you're going to go down that road or not." ... Mariners INF Russell Branyan (back spasms) took batting practice and could return to the lineup on Tuesday. ... Mariners 1B Justin Smoak (legs) got the day off.