137

With apologies to Bob Hope, the Update says "Danks for the memories." Sox rookie pitcher John Danks notched his first career win last night, giving up only one run on three hits in 6.2 innings. The story line almost became "Danks for nothing," as the bullpen frittered away a portion of the 5-1 lead they were handed. Mike MacDougal gave up two runs and left two more runners on base before Boone Logan came in to fan Justin Morneau on three breaking balls. (Hey, Oz, where was Logan on Wednesday night when Morneau hit his walkoff home run in the tenth inning?) In the ninth, Bobby Jenks walked two before settling down to get the next three batters to record his 11th save. Along the way, Danks was helped by a very nice running catch by Darin Erstad that saved some runs. (Torii Hunter one-upped Erstad though, robbing Juan Uribe of a bases-loaded, extra-base hit on an over-the-shoulder, falling-down, on-a-dead-run catch at the wall in center.) So, in the end, I guess the catch-phrase in this 6-3 win is, with apologies to Elvis, "Dank you. Dank you, very much."

By the way, the other day the Update told you that the Sox had averaged nine hits in games where the temperature is at least 70 degrees. In each of their two games in the climate-controlled Metrodome, the Sox have banged out nine hits. The temperature doesn't seem to affect Gus Molina, however. His average is the same no matter what the thermometer reads. Molina has as many hits this season as I do -- none. He's 0 for 13 on the season, which makes him 0 for 13 in his career. It would have been nice if he'd have earned a beer bath for getting his first career hit the same night that Danks earned one for his first win. One rookie who is looking pretty good though is Ryan Sweeney. He's hitting .261, which on the Sox this season is among the team leaders. He looks fast and seems to be an improvement over Brian Anderson.

Anyway, last night's win plus a rare loss by Cleveland chopped the Magic Number down to 137. The Indians' lead over the fourth-place White Sox is back down to 4.5 games. And the Sox are back to .500 for the eighth time this season (nine if you count 0-0). They've never been worse than two games under or better than three games over .500, so there's a certain (unsatisfying) consistency about their record this season. But all that's going to change, starting this afternoon. Go Sox!