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Danks sharp as White Sox stave off elimination

Oct 6, 2008 - 2:30 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- The Chicago White Sox led the majors in home runs during the regular season. Standing on the verge of elimination on Sunday, Ozzie Guillen's team turned to small ball.

John Danks tossed 6 2/3 strong innings and Dewayne Wise drove in a pair of runs and stole a base to ensure that Chicago would live to play another day with a 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in Sunday's Game Three of the American League Division Series.

"We knew it was either win or go home and we're not ready to go home yet," Wise said.

A.J. Pierzynski had two hits and drove in a run for the White Sox, who will host Game Four on Monday as they try to stave off possible elimination for the fifth time, dating back to the last two games of the regular season and one-game playoff for the division title September 30 with Minnesota.

"Momentum is a day to day thing in baseball," Pierzynski said. "It's not like hockey, basketball, football. Baseball changes pitch by pitch, inning by inning. The bottom line is you have to find a way to win every inning."

Chicago clubbed 235 homers in the regular season and were held without a blast in the first two games of the series. On the brink of elimination in the best-of-five series, the White Sox started to manufacture some runs.

"We're not going to go out and every time a guy gets on first, bunt him over," White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko said. "That's just not our team. But we have a lot of god hitters and situationally, if guys are on second with two out or third with one out, those are going to make or break these games, just like they do in the regular season."

Trailing 1-0 in the third, Wise drew a walk to lead off the frame against starter Matt Garza, before Juan Uribe lined out and Orlando Cabrera struck out. On the verge of another wasted inning, Wise stole second before Pierzynski singled to draw Chicago even.

The White Sox used some speed put three more runs on the board in the fourth. After Jim Thome led off with a double, Paul Konerko walked and Ken Griffey Jr. singled to load the bases.

Rookie Alexei Ramirez then lifted a fly ball to deep center field. Thome scored easily from third on the sacrifice fly and Konerko and Griffey each moved up a base, putting two men in scoring position for Wise, who drove the first pitch from Matt Garza (0-1) into the left field for a two-run double.

"We just have to score runs, " Griffey said. "How you do it, doesn't really matter, even if it's small ball."

White Sox manager Guillen liked the end result, even if he didn't know whether it was entirely legal.

"To be honest I thought Griffey cheated," Guillen said. "I never thought he went back to the bag. I think it got everybody excited in the dugout to see those guys play the game the way it should be playing.

"We've got to move people round, hit-and-run here and try to steal a couple of bases. We got something done."

Danks (1-0) made the early support stand up, setting down 12 of 14 between the third and the sixth. The 24-year-old lefthander, who pitched eight scoreless innings against the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday to get Chicago into the playoffs, was charged with three runs and seven hits while walking three and striking out seven in 6 2/3 frames.

"My biggest thing is try to keep it as ordinary as possible," Danks said. "I feel like I was able to do that today. I think part of my success is just from that Minnesota game. I think that game helped me. It kept me from trying to do too much early in the game."

Danks left after allowing a two-run homer to B.J. Upton and a single to Carlos Pena in the seventh.

"My struggles after that were me just trying to do too much," Danks said. "I was trying to throw too hard instead of being aggressive like I was early in the game."

Reliever Octavio Dotel struck out Evan Longoria with a runner on to end the seventh and Matt Thornton pitched a scoreless eighth before handing the ball to closer Bobby Jenks, who struck out Pena with a runner on to end the game and earn the save.

"At least we play (Monday)," Guillen said. "That's the only thing about it. But it gives us maybe a little - no, a lot - of comfort for (Monday's) game. And, like I said, we played against the wall before and we came out of it."

Upton, Pena, Akinori Iwamura and Dioner Navarro each had two hits for the Rays.

"I don't think anyone in this clubhouse thinks we have lost any momentum," Longoria said. "It's just one game and one loss. I think, being up 2-1, we are still in the driver's seat."

The White Sox have won four straight at U.S. Cellular Field.

"They have faced some difficult moments recently in this ballpark and have done well," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "So it's a bad assumption to think you are just going to come in here and beat up on them."