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Danks, White Sox top Royals in finale

Aug 14, 2011 - 10:54 PM Chicago, IL (Sports Network) - John Danks pitched six strong innings to lead the Chicago White Sox to a 6-2 win over the Kansas City Royals in the finale of a three-game series at U.S. Cellular Field.

Danks (5-9) took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before losing the bid on a single by Billy Butler. He gave up two runs on four hits while fanning six and issuing four walks. Will Ohman worked a scoreless ninth to seal the win for Chicago.

"I knew I had it going from the third inning on," Danks said of his chance for a no-hitter. "I knew I had a long way to go though."

Brent Lillibridge clubbed a three-run homer, while Carlos Quentin picked up a pair of RBI and Paul Konerko reached base five times for the Sox, winners in eight of their last 10 games.

Mitch Maier ripped a two-run single, while Jeff Francoeur and Melky Cabrera had doubles for the Royals, who have dropped eight of their last 10.

Jeff Francis (4-13) was tagged with the loss after lasting only 3 2/3 innings and giving up six runs on 10 hits while walking a pair and striking out one.

"I didn't really have very sharp command," Francis said of his rough outing. "When you fall behind guys and don't have good command, you're kind of forced to come in the zone and they took some good rips."

The White Sox opened the scoring in the first inning. Alexei Ramirez was plunked by Francis with one out, went to third on a single by Konerko and scored on a base hit to left by Quentin. Following an Alex Rios line-out, Lillibridge cracked his 10th home run of the season into the seats in left to make it 4-0.

"To be able to get one over the fence was huge," Lillibridge said. "It was a big one early, it put us up 4-0 and I knew that was going to be enough for John."

Chicago added a pair of runs in the fourth, extending its lead to 6-0. Juan Pierre and Ramirez laced back-to-back singles and Konerko walked to load the bases with no outs. Pierre trotted home on a sacrifice fly by Quentin and Ramirez scored on a sacrifice fly by Rios.

After Butler broke up Danks' no-hit bid with a single down the first base line, which took a bad hop over the glove of Lillibridge, Francoeur ripped a double down the left field line to give the Royals runners on second and third with two outs. Mairer came through by poking a two-run single up the middle to cut the Sox lead to 6-2.

Royals reliever Nathan Adcock got Ramirez to pop out to begin the home sixth, but then walked the next three hitters to load the bases. He recovered and got Lillibridge to ground into a 5-3 double play to deny the Sox a big inning.

Kansas City threatened in the seventh, putting runners on second and third with two down against Sox reliever Jason Frasor. But Frasor fanned Butler to end the inning.

Game Notes

The White Sox reached .500 (60-60) for the first time since July 29, when they were 52-52...Lillibridge's home run was his first against the Royals...Despite the win on Sunday, Chicago is an American League-worst 26-33 at home this season...Francoeur smacked his 34th double of the season...Kansas City leads the season series with Chicago by a 6-5 count.