DANKS ENDS WINLESS STREAK IN CHISOX ROUT
1st 'W' Comes in 18th
Start of Season
BOSTON, July 8 (AP) - It was a long-time coming. John Danks won his first start of the year, allowing one run in six innings of work, as the Chicago White Sox defeated the Boston Red Sox 9-2 at Fenway Park. The victory snapped a 10-decision losing streak for Danks, leaving his record for the season at 1-10. It was the longest such streak in the major leagues this season. The next longest mark is held by Erik Bedard of the Tampa Bay Rays, who has dropped his last seven decisions. Jeremy Hellickson recently took over Bedard's spot in the Rays rotation and it's unclear when or if he'll have another opportunity to snap--or extend--the streak.
It didn't take long for Danks' teammates to give him hope that the streak might come to an end. After threatening but failing to score in the first inning, they plated three runs in the top of the second and bounced Red Sox starter Brandon Workman from the game in the process. Conor Gillespie led off with a base hit, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and took third when Dayan Viciedo flied out to the base of the Green Monster in left-center field. Alejandro de Aza flied to shallow center for the second out and it appeared that the White Sox would come up empty again, but Tyler Flowers drove home Gillespie with a single to right and Adam Eaton followed with a base hit to right-center, putting runners on the corners. Gordon Beckham drilled a double to left-center, scoring both runners, giving Chicago a 3-0 lead. Jose Abreu reached on an infield hit, again leaving runners on first and third, and Workman walked Adam Dunn to load the bases. That was it for Workman, who needed 55 pitches to record five outs, and Junichi Tazawa came on to get Alexi Ramirez to pop to second, to escape further damage.
The White Sox blew the game open over the next two innings. In the third, Eaton and Beckham lashed back-to-back singles with one out and Burke Badenhop replaced Tazawa. But Abreu lined a base hit to right-center, scoring Eaton and chasing Beckham to third. Dunn walked for the second time in the game and Ramirez lifted a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Beckham to up the lead to 5-0.
In the fourth, Chicago blew the game open once and for all. De Aza drew a one=out walk, and when Flowers reached on third baseman Xander Bogaerts's error, runners were on first and second. Eaton drew a free pass, filling the bases, and Beckham's sacrifice fly scored de Aza and moved Flowers to third. Abreu's base hit to right scored Flowers and Dunn followed with a two-run double off the Monster, giving the White Sox a 9-0 lead.
Danks fought control problems throughout--he walked seven batters--and only struck out one, but somehow managed to hold Boston scoreless through five innings. The Red Sox failed to score in the first despite loading the bases and blew a second-and-third-one-out scenario in the third. In the first four innings, Boston left eight runners on base.
When the Red Sox finally did dent home plate off Danks, they did so without the benefit of a hit. Bogaerts was hit by a pithch with one out and consecutive walks to David Ross and Stephen Drew loaded the bases--the third frame in the game during which Boston filled the bases--but Mookie Betts' sacrifice fly, scoring Bogaerts, was the only tally of the inning.
David Ortiz doubled home a run off Daniel Webb in the seventh, but the Red Sox drew no closer. For the game, Boston managed only three hits.
Overall, the Red Sox stranded 15 baserunners, and the White Sox left 11 men on base. The combined total of 26 ties the major league season high for a nine-inning game this season. The A's and the Mariners combined to strand 26 baserunners on May 7 at the Coliseum in Oakland.
The White Sox pitching staff tied another big league nine-inning season high mark by walking 12 batters. The Texas Rangers also walked a dozen batters during a 9-1 loss to the Houston Astros on April 12.
7/8/2014, ChA14-Bos14, Fenway Park
1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
LOB DP
2014 White Sox
0 3 0 2 4 0 0
0 0 9 14 1 11 0
2014 Red Sox
0 0 0 0 0 1 1
0 0 2 3 1 15 0
White Sox
AB R H BI AVG
Red Sox AB R
H BI AVG
Eaton
cf 5 3 3 0 .276
Holt,B rf 4 0
1 0 .265
Beckham
2b 5 1 2 3 .212
Pedroia 2b 2 1
0 0 .273
Abreu,J
1b 5 1 4 2 .308
Ortiz dh 4 0
2 1 .235
Dunn,A
dh 2 0 1 2 .242
Napoli 1b 5 0
0 0 .271
Ramirez,Al
ss 4 0 1 1 .259
Gomes,J lf 4 0 0
0 .218
Gillaspie
3b 5 1 2 0 .247
Bogaerts 3b 3 1 0
0 .248
Viciedo
rf 5 0 0 0 .225
Ross,D c 3 0
0 0 .129
Sierra
rf 0 0 0 0 .248
Carp ph 0 0
0 0 .206
De Aza
lf 4 1 0 0 .223
Drew ss 3 0
0 0 .193
Flowers
c 5 2 1 1 .190
Betts cf 2 0
0 1 .350
40 9 14 9
30 2 3 2
White Sox
INN
H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Danks,Joh
W 1-10 6.0 2
1 1 7 1 123 58 5.87
Webb,D
H 10 1.1 1
1 1 4 2 43 18 7.19
Surkamp
1.2 0 0 0 1 2 23 12 0.00
9.0 3 2 2 12 5 189 88
Red Sox
INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA
Workman
L 3-5 1.2 6
3 3 2 2 55 32 4.53
Tazawa
1.2 2 2 2 0 2 31 20 6.89
Badenhop
1.2 4 4 0 3 0 46 22 1.83
Doubront
1.0 1 0 0 0 0 15 7 4.89
Mujica
2.0 1 0 0 0 1 27 20 3.41
Miller,A
1.0 0 0 0 0 1 12 9 0.24
9.0 14 9 5 5 6 186 110
ChA: Sierra inserted
at rf in the 8th
Bos: Carp batted for
Ross,D in the 9th
E-Ramirez,Al,
Bogaerts. 2B-Beckham(13), Abreu,J(22), Dunn,A(11),
Gillaspie(16), Ortiz
2(15). RBI-Beckham 3(23), Abreu,J 2(48), Dunn,A 2(42),
Ramirez,Al(35),
Flowers(24), Ortiz(56), Betts(5). K-Eaton, Beckham 2,
Ramirez,Al,
Gillaspie, Flowers, Ortiz, Napoli 2, Ross,D, Betts. BB-Eaton,
Dunn,A 3, De Aza,
Holt,B, Pedroia 3, Ortiz, Gomes,J, Bogaerts, Ross,D,
Drew 2, Betts, Carp.
SF-Beckham, Ramirez,Al, Betts. HBP-Bogaerts.
HB-Danks,Joh.
WP-Danks,Joh, Webb,D 2, Workman.
GWRBI: Flowers
Temperature: 70,
Sky: partly cloudy, Wind: out to right at 9 MPH.
Attendance: 36,390
Game Time: 3:42