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There are those – myself included – who thought that John Danks was the best pitcher in the White Sox starting rotation this year. Boy, were we wrong! Danks, who has yet to win a game in 2011, lost for the seventh time in 10 starts. He gave up four runs on nine hits and two walks over eight innings, in a 4-0 loss to the Rangers last night in Texas.

Even assuming the Sox return to a five-man rotation, as has been rumored, Danks has 22 or 23 starts remaining. Over the last three years, when he’s won 15, 13, and 12 games, Danks has won about 41% of his starts. That pace works out to nine wins, which would be his worst performance since he became a full-time starter in 2008. (Of course, that percentage is misleading because it includes losses that have already occurred, so he’s likely to win more than nine games IF he recovers his form of the past few seasons.)

Danks hasn’t received much run support this year – 2.2 runs per game – and last night was no different. The Sox were shut out for the sixth time this year, which exceeds their total of five for last season and matches their total in 2006. The Good Guys failed to post a run 11 times in 2007 and 2008 and were blanked 13 times in 2009. The pace they’re on now – 6 shutouts in 49 games – projects to 20 whitewashes for the 2011 season, a much too high a number.

But it’s hard to score when you get only five hits, as the Sox did last night. Juan Pierre, Paul Konerko, and A.J. Pierzynski each had one, and Gordon Beckham collected a pair.

The loss combined with Cleveland’s win leaves the Sox 10.0 games back in the division race. Now would be a good time to start climbing the rest of the way out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves. Go Sox!