Whose No-Hitter Is It Anyway? White Sox - Red Sox Game 4

If I told you one of the starting pitchers was flirting with a no-hitter/perfect game, and you looked at the final score (5-1 for the BoSox), you’d think I was referring to Beckett of the Red Sox. But, unfortunately, I’m not. Johnny Danks carried a no-hitter into the 7^th. And then, I asked myself, “What came first? The end of the no-hitter or the loss of concentration?” In an unexpected turn, the Sox once again lose to Boston, and once again find themselves in second place in their division.

Really, what can you say about John Danks? He came in with a 9-4 record (now 9-5), the best ERA of all our starters, looked great getting out of inning after inning hitless, scoreless, showing great control of his fastball despite problems with anything low. And then, in the seventh, after a strike-out, Danks gave up a hit. That was the end of the no-hitter. He followed it up with a walk, a strike-out, an RBI double, and a walk before turning the reigns over to KC acquisition Horacio Ramirez. He couldn’t do the job, so Russell was brought out. Who wasn’t much better, starting off with a walk and only getting out of the inning thanks to an amazing catch by Carlos Quentin. He and Thornton had a combined terrible 9^th inning (let’s not go into the gruesome details, let’s just say the bases were loaded at one point), bringing in a combined 3 runs before Lance Broadway was brought in to close the inning (more to get his feet wet than to bring in a strong finish, but… he was there).

Well, gotta give it to that Beckett guy. He and their closer only allowed one run from the Sox to cross home plate despite allowing 7 hits (the BoSox also got 7 hits, but made them and 3 walks into 5 runs). Only AJ was given an RBI. In fact, many went hitless (Cabrera, Thome, and Silver Sombrero winner Quentin) over the nine innings. On the bright side (And this is a stretch), Griffey ended his hitless streak, finally lucking into crushing one, Swish somehow went 2 for 3, and Danks had another strong outing. At least we know can feel like someone in our rotation isn’t getting worse as we get deeper into the season. And while I wasn’t optimistic about this series, we did at least tie with a very good team that we have had nothing but trouble with in the past.

You may have noticed Konerko was absent and Griffey was out in the Bermuda Triangle CF again. I’ve been trying to figure them out, but I find it very difficult to assess the situation when they’re out every other day. Part of me is saying, “if you don’t get hits, you should grab some bench tomorrow,” (This part of me obviously doesn’t understand that it might mean benching both. Or perhaps, it does and likes option C better.) while the other part is saying, “can we stop shifting things around already?!” If only there was a way to figure out which one of these veterans still has it in him without hurting the team’s productivity, that would be terrific.

How about some news? No real good news from Linebrink, but Crede is reportedly “feeling better” -but hasn’t started his rehab assignment yet. Gavin Floyd (often a victim of my ridicule because he’s in need of a haircut) lost a bet with Bobby Jenks and had to pay up- he reached 12 wins for the season and is now as bald as [fill in the blank, we have plenty baldies, and plenty balding] since his teammates got to shave his head. As Hawk put it, “I hope it grows back real fast.”