Morel, Rangers Pitching Staff Bail Out Danks

John Danks was looking poised to fall to 0-7 on the year Tuesday night before a fifth-inning home run off the bat of Brent Morel tied the game at 3-3 and shifted the momentum into the White Sox’s corner.

Danks walked six, matching his career-high, but only allowed three hits…mostly because there wasn’t much reason for Texas to swing the bat. Danks still made pitches when he needed to and finished strong, exiting with one out in the seventh inning. Not bad considering he was already over 60 pitches after the second inning.

Trailing 3-0, the Sox offense was flat until Rangers starter Matt Harrison walked a pair and left a 1-2 fastball over the plate. Morel didn’t miss, hitting a laser beam into the left-center field seats.

In the eighth, Texas reliever Cody Eppley walked Gordon Beckham to lead off, then after Morel struck out, newly promoted Dallas McPherson pinch-hit for Brent Lillibridge and smacked the first pitch he saw up the middle to advance Beckham to third.

With Alexei Ramirez at-bat, Eppley delivered a slider that got away from him as he released it, and it bounced away from catcher Yorvit Torrealba, allowing Beckham to score on the wild pitch. That gave the Sox a 4-3 lead and Sergio Santos came in and shut the door in a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his sixth save of the year. His scoreless streak extended to 20 innings to start the season.

The sudden momentum change was a gift to the White Sox, who looked just as lifeless in the first five innings as they did Monday against Colby Lewis.

Jesse Crain earned the win for the White Sox, pitching 1 2/3 strong innings.