2008 State of the Sox

August 16: White Sox 2, Athletics 1

This had all the makings of another Oakland heartbreaker -- early lead, John Danks throwing a ton of pitches, blown offensive opportunities, shoddy defense, blah blah blah...

...but this time, they held on.

The key was the sixth inning for John Danks, who had thrown 101 pitches after five arduous innings.  The A's had stranded eight runners in the first four innings alone, including a fourth inning in which he walked two consecutive batters on four pitches to load the bases for Frank Thomas.  Two great plays by Juan Uribe -- a 5-unassisted double play, and a 5-3 one -- thwarted threats, and he appeared lucky to get through five after another DP ended the fifth.

Ozzie Guillen sent him out there with the apparent mission of facing Daric Barton before going to to the bullpen.  But a funny thing happened -- he retired Barton on the first pitch, the first time all day the A's recorded a first-pitch out.

So Guillen let him work the rest of the inning, and Danks made it pay off.  He recorded his first 1-2-3 inning of the day, and only on seven pitches.

The bullpen seized that momentum and carried it with them the rest of the way, with a two-out D.J. Carrasco walk the only baserunner the relief corps allowed in three innings of work.  Matt Thornton was particularly impressive, striking out the side on just 11 pitches.

Sox relievers had some making up to do for Friday, and they needed it thanks to a sputtering offense.  They struck for two runs in the second when Paul Konerko led off with a double, Juan Uribe doubled him home, and Toby Hall made it a two-run lead by lining a single over Mark Ellis' head.

The Sox wouldn't score again, but not for a lack of opportunties.  They outhit Oakland 11-6, but stranded 13 runners with a lack of situational hitting all day long.

The A's scored their only run in the third thanks to some inexplicable defense.  After Kurt Suzuki led off with a double, Frank Thomas poked a lazy fly to right-center that Nick Swisher dropped.  He tried to catch it chest-high and just clanked off the tip to put runners on the corners with no outs.

Emil Brown ripped the second pitch to center to cut the lead in half, and the situation would get hairier when Jack Cust would single off Alexei Ramirez's mitt as he ranged to his left, a play that probably should've been made.  But Uribe made up for it by snagging Mark Ellis' broken-bat line drive behind the bag and beating Frank Thomas to third for the double play.

Ramirez recorded the final out, but not without drama.  He ranged to his left and bobbled it, but recovered quickly and fired a bullet to Konerko to get Barton for the final out.

Record: 69-53 | Box score | Play-by-play