Sox Drop a Deuce at Home vs. Twins

With a two-game series at home against a struggling Minnesota squad playing without Joe Mauer and Delmon Young, you would think the White Sox would take this opportunity to right their ship and get things moving forward instead of backward.

Minnesota just wanted it more.

Francisco Liriano tossed a no-hitter Tuesday night then Nick Blackburn threw 6 2-3 innings of one-run ball as the Twins beat the White Sox 3-2 Wednesday. John Danks fell to 0-5 despite five quality starts in his first seven appearances to start the season.

The big gaffe today that cost Danks came in the sixth inning after a leadoff single. Matt Tolbert dropped down a sacrifice bunt down the third base line but second baseman Omar Vizquel didn’t get over to cover first. So instead of a runner on second and one out, the Twins had two on and nobody out.

Justin Morneau flied out to right field to advance Denard Span to third, then he scored on a Jason Kubel sac fly, which should have been the third out.

Danks then intentionally walked Michael Cuddyer to get to Rene Tosoni, whose two-out single put the Twins up 3-1. Matt Capps came in with two on in the eighth and retired Paul Konerko (sac fly scored Sox’s second run) and Carlos Quentin to quash the rally. He then worked a good enough ninth to earn the save.

"That doesn’t happen very often. That was my mistake all the way. I think I was worried more about the double play than being at first base for the bunt. Today I made a mistake and we paid for it.  – Omar Vizquel"

Chicago finished its homestand at 1-5 and now heads to the West Coast for a nine-game swing against the Mariners, Angels and A’s.