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Danks shuts down Athletics

Apr 15, 2008 - 10:46 PM By Gene Chamberlain PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CHICAGO (Ticker) -- John Danks celebrated his 23rd birthday Tuesday not with cake and candles, but with fireworks and a much-needed win.

Danks threw 7 2/3 scoreless innings in the Chicago White Sox's 4-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics.

Danks (1-1) scattered five hits, stuck out four and yielded two walks to help give Chicago a split of the brief, two-game series. He combined with relievers Scott Linebrink and Bobby Jenks to close within two pitches of the team's third shutout in the last four games.

"I feel great," Danks said. "I feel like I'm a different pitcher this year. I expect good things the rest of the way out."

The lefthander also ended a personal streak of 11 straight winless starts, capturing a win for the first time since July 16, 2007 at Cleveland.

"It's been a while," Danks said. "It was, I think, the second time I've ever thrown on my birthday - and that's two wins for me (on his birthday)."

Danks registered his second career win over Oakland without allowing a runner beyond first base. The A's eventually scored on Emil Brown's ninth-inning sacrifice fly off Jenks after Mike Sweeney's single off Linebrink moved Daric Barton to third.

Jenks then picked up his fifth save on the next batter, inducing Bobby Crosby into a double play.

"It would be nice if we could get more consistency from him," Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said about Danks, who went 6-13 with a 5.50 ERA last year. "I think when he's good, he's real good. When he's bad, he's real bad."

Danks had pitched five innings of no-hit ball and allowed a run in 6 2/3 innings in an April 3 outing against Cleveland, but got shelled by Minnesota for seven runs in 2 1/3 frames against Minnesota six days later.

"Nothing is really new anymore," he said. "I've been there. You know, last year if I felt like I did today I probably wouldn't have made it out of the third or fourth inning. I would have tried to overthrow.

"Today I didn't feel like I had the best stuff I've had but I just kind of went out there with the best stuff I had and kind of went from there."

The White Sox's pitching staff has allowed three runs in their last 37 innings, dating back to the final inning of a 12-5 loss here to Detroit on Friday.

Chicago been backed by strong fielding, finishing up an error-free seven-game homestand on Tuesday.

"That's one of the key parts of our attack this year is going to be our pitching and our defense," third baseman Joe Crede said. "That's what's going to carry us throughout the season."

Danks had two fielding gems to back him up. Rookie center fielder Alexei Ramirez went into the right-center field gap near the warning track to throw Brown out trying to stretch a single into a double leading off the second. Crede made a diving stop behind the bag and threw out Mark Ellis leading off the sixth.

"Maybe the play that made the difference today, and people don't realize it, is that play Ramirez made in the outfield earlier in the game," Guillen said. "That shut it down right away. You've got men on second base with no outs starting the game. That got the team a little pumped up.

"The play by Crede, I see that every day (from him). That impresses me. I see him making those plays day in and day out."

Carlos Quentin supplied the fireworks for Danks' special day with a three-run homer to left off lefthanded starter Dana Eveland (1-1). It was Quentin's second home run this season.

Crede drove in a run in the fifth with a single, scoring Jermaine Dye, who'd singled and advanced on third baseman Donnie Murphy's throwing error.

The White Sox had five hits and worked three walks off Eveland as Oakland finished 6-2 on its road trip.

"He seemed to lose a little bit of command that one inning (the fourth)," A's manager Bob Geren said. "I liked the way he came back after that.

"Their guy was just hitting the spots. The other team made nice plays, which really helped. We just came up short."