156

The White Sox played their most complete game of the season and came away with an 11-1 win over the Blue Jays in Toronto.  John Danks was masterly (yes, that's the right word), pitching seven innings of one-run, two-hit ball to improve his record to 1-0 for the season.  Danks struck out twice as many (6) as he walked (3), and Tony Pena took advantage of the low-leverage situation (a 10-run lead) by working two innings without giving up a hit, run, or walk, while striking out two.  Both pitchers were finding the plate: Danks threw 65 of his 103 pitches for strikes, while Pena zeroed in on 13 of his 20 tosses.

The Sox had all the runs they'd need to win by the third inning, but never took their collective foot off the gas.  One night after nearly being no-hit, nine Sox batters notched safeties, with five of them getting more than one.  Juan Pierre was 2 for 5 and scored two runs.  Gordon Beckham matched those stats, incuded a double in his total, and added a hit by pitch and two RBI.  Carlos Quentin also went 2 for 5 with two runs scored, but racked up a Grand Salami, a double, and six RBI (giving him 10 on the year).  Andruw Jones crushed a home run to center field -- his third of the series and the season and 391st of his career, giving him sole possession of 50th place on the all-time list.  Alex Rios continued to be booed by his former fans, but managed to join the hit parade with (small ball alert) a two-out single and a steal of second that allowed him to come home on A.J. Pierzyski's base hit.  A.J. added another hit to finish 2 for 3 before giving way to Donny "You got some 'splainin' to do" Lucy (no, it never gets old to us), who doubled to raise his average to .667.  Mark Teahen singled, coaxed two walks in three trips to the plate, and scored three times before taking the rest of the night off so that Jayson Nix could get in a couple of at-bats and a hit in the process.

For those of you whose calculators shorted out trying to add all that up, the Good Guys established a new season high with 15 hits, bettering the mark of 14 from the first game in the series.  Add in the four walks and hit batsman, and that adds up to 20 times reaching base.  Subtract the two double plays the Sox hit into and the seven men left on base, and you wind up with 11 runs.  Remember, when doing math problems, you must show your work.

And for those of you following the trend we pointed out earlier this season, there still is a perfect correleation between multi-homer games and wins.  All four times the Sox have had more than one home run, they've won; they've lost every time that they've failed to hit more than one bomb. Stroking two or more dingers per game has proven to be just what the doctor (Dr. Longball, that is) ordered.

After last night, the Sox have now won three of their last four and are only two games back of the Tigers and Twins, both of which lost last night.  Let's win the last game of the series against the Jays, get back to .500, and move forward from there.  Go Sox!