John Danks pitches well, but Sox still slip back to .500
In front of a decent Friday night crowd, the White Sox could never figure out a way to turn up the volume. The Padres had a couple of big blasts in them, and that made the difference.
Though he pitched well in defeat, John Danks Doesn't Know How To Win, and so the Sox fell back to .500.
Danks pitched seven strong innings, allowing just a pair of runs -- and only one was really on him. The count got him on Cameron Maybin's homer, as Maybin waited for a 2-0 fastball to break toward the center of the plate, and he crushed it out to left.
The other run? Well, it wasn't the White Sox' best work. Adam Eaton didn't read Rene Rivera's hard-hit line drive over his head, and it cleared over his head for a double. The Padres bunted him to third, but Danks nullified that move by fanning Chris Denorfia for the second out. That gave Danks an out, but then Adrian Nieto gave the Padres a run by coming up way too early on a cutter in the dirt. The Padres' Wild Pitch Offense gave the Padres the lead just a half-inning after the Sox tied the game in the same way.
Although the Sox' inning was a little funnier. Conor Gillaspie reached on an infield single when he hit away from the shift. Two batters later, he moved to second on Adam Dunn's walk, then took third when Cameron Maybin caught Alexei Ramirez's flyout for the second out ... and Maybin thought it was the third. While Maybin dropped his head and jogged toward the infield, Gillaspie took third. That 90 feet mattered, because Ian Kennedy bounced a curve that Rivera couldn't block, and Gillaspie came home.
Marcus Semien drew a walk to extend the inning, but Alejandro De Aza hit a long, loud out to center to end the inning, and Kennedy kept the Sox bats in check after that. He overcame some early command issues to last six innings, canceling four hits and three walks with nine strikeouts.
The Padres padded the lead in the eighth when Javy Guerra rolled a 1-2 curveball to Yonder Alonso with two outs. It was a putaway pitch of a different sort, as Alonso hit it over the wall in right for a two-run shot, and the Sox didn't have enough for a three-run deficit. Kennedy found his groove, and the Padres bullpen picked up where he left off. Combined, Padres pitchers retired 16 of the last 17 batters they faced.
Bullet points:
*Gordon Beckham went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts to stall his hot streak, but he made quite a creative play in the first, taking away a bunt single by redirecting the roll to Adam Dunn for the out.
*Gillaspie had half the Sox' hits to raise his average to .356.
*The White Sox didn't help themselves on the basepaths, either. Alexei Ramirez was picked off, and Eaton was caught stealing for strike-him-out-throw-him-out, which stranded a runner on third with Gillaspie on deck.
Record: 28-28 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights