Sweeping Detroit was probably an unrealistic goal
By James Fegan
What we have here is a John Danks start in 2014.
A little bit of home run problems, a little bit of run support and a little bit of the fates reaching their hands down, and this case, flicking a ball out of Jeff Keppinger‘s glove and allowing two runs to score, wrapping up a 6-4 loss in the daytime finale of this otherwise surprisingly cromulent series with Detroit.
The top of the sixth inning had already seen the Tigers snap a 3-3 tie with an Omar Infante RBI single past the glove of Alexei Ramirez. After a Jose Iglesias strikeout and the regrettable decision to plunk backup catcher Bryan Holaday, Conor Gillaspie made a beautiful stop of hot shot off of Austin Jackson‘s bat and made a less beautiful but still functional throw that one-hopped its way to first, where it found Jeff Keppinger stretched out to one knee and totally unprepared for something that skipped up to the height of his head. Two runs scored as Keppinger executed some sort of abdominal twist and the ball bailed out for foul territory.
That the game ended with Alejandro De Aza grounding out with runners on second and third, pushed their by Josh Phegley bunting away an out, only added some sting to this already hideous play.
It was also the final step of destroying the promising start of the game, which began with Rick Porcello needing 37 pitches to escape the first inning, allowing three runs, punctuated by run-scoring singles from Avisail Garcia (of the infield variety) and Conor Gillaspie (of the two-out bullet to right field variety). Porcello would last another five innings with allowing another tally.
There was the entire second inning to enjoy a three-run lead until John Danks tossed a center-cut fastball (at 92 mph!) that Miguel Cabrera tomahawked into the left field bullpen with two runners on to tie it up in the third. Cabrera’s defense at third was painful to watch, he gifted the Sox at least two hits and he could barely drag himself up the baseline on groundouts, but he managed to make his presence known regardless. In a positive way, that is.
The White Sox scratched 14 hits, but with no power to speak of (all of them were singles), they managed to strand 15 runners. They had two runners on in both the eight and ninth innings, but only scratched out a single run. Joaquin Benoit ended the eighth by whiffing Adam Dunn and Avisail Garcia with high fastballs, and retired Jordan Danks and De Aza to close out the game.
Danks, despite getting scarred by Cabrera and embroiled in an awful three-run sixth, last until one out in the eighth. He’s averaged 6.8 innings per start over his last 10 outings.
Team Record: 46-73
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