Indians Take Series, Beat Sox 7-5

Cleveland Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis enjoyed one of his better ballgames, going two-for-three with a walk, a home run and four runs batted in tonight against John Danks and the White Sox. Danks was shaky yet again as he allowed seven runs on nine hits through seven innings pitched, bumping his ERA up to a not-so-very-$65-million-worthy 6.51.  Alejandro De Aza, our leadoff hitter who occasionally does a pretty good impression of a cleanup hitter, drove in two runs and Adam Dunn hit a two-run home run off Dan Wheeler in the bottom of the ninth, his second home run in as many games. Chris Perez (yes, Chris Perez) ended the Sox’ ninth inning rally with a strikeout in two thirds of an inning pitched to log his ninth (yes, ninth) save of the 2012 season.

As mentioned John Danks has been struggling this season (to put it lightly). His record of two wins against four loses hardly justifies his offseason contract extension, and if this is only the beginning of what we’re going to see from him all season we’re in for a frustrating ride. His counterpart tonight, Justin Masterson, is having similar struggles after a solid 2011 campaign. Masterson worked six and a third innings surrendering three runs on eight hits.

If there’s anything good to take away from the 12-13 White Sox it’s that Adam Dunn seems to have brushed off the mediocre left over from last season. After tonight’s game The Donkey leads the Sox in runs batted in with nineteen and home runs with seven – already on pace to comfortably best last season’s “output.” That and Gordon Beckham is starting to heat up as his batting average is finally over .200 on the year and looks to be steadily climbing. Oh and Alex Rios might be good this year. For Dunn I’m optimistic, for Rios I’ll wait until August to get excited about.

Tomorrow night the White Sox will head up to Detroit to do battle with the Tigers. First pitch between AL Pitcher of the Month Jake Peavy (3-1, 1.67) and impressive rookie Drew Smyly (1-0, 1.23) is scheduled for 6:05 Central time. Thank goodness Jason Kipnis doesn’t play for them.