Sometimes You Just Win

The Friday and Saturday White Sox games were like night and day. I mean, beyond the respective 7:00 and 3:00 start times. Friday night the Sox put together a 12 hit attack, besting the Astros in that department by 4 but still came up well short of a victory as the hits had too many outs between them. Saturday the Sox put together some clusters, pushing 5 runs across in 5th inning without the benefit of an extra base hit. Just 4 singles, a couple walks and some friendly fielding. Also on display Saturday afternoon: Chris Sale.

Astros (25-34): 1
White Sox (33-26): 10

Sale didn’t require all of the offense the Sox provided. He cruised through 8 innings, allowed only 4 hits, struck out 8 and kept Houston off of the scoreboard. In the first inning Astros hitters were hitting the ball fairly hard but Chris endured what turned out to be an uneventful first with a couple of loud outs and began sitting challengers down shortly after they stepped into the box. His league leading ERA entering the game was lowered to 2.05.

Remember against Brandon Morrow when the Sox managed just 2 hits, both by A.J. Pierzynski? The game does have a way of getting things to even out. All White Sox starters had at least one hit Saturday, with the exception of Pierzynski, who went 0-5 on the day. The front of the lineup, Alejandro De Aza, Gordon Beckham and Adam Dunn combined to go 9 for 14 including a slap-in-the-face grand slam from Adam Dunn in the 8th inning, his first granny since 2009.

Jordan Danks firsts

• Start
• Multi-hit game
• Stolen Base
• Strikeout
• Run

Plus: Pitching dominance, hitting dominance. A dominant win. First place suits these guys.

Minus: Sure would have been mighty nice to have gotten that shutout, and more importantly a clean inning for Zach Stewart who has been less than inspiring in his appearances. The bullpen is turning into a group of guys that induce moans from fans than cheers.

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