It’s disheartening to see Danks pitch so well but never get any run support. He hardly gives up more than a few runs, and he is constantly keeping his ball club in the game. Last night was no different for Danks. He had a perfect game going into the Six until he hit a batter. In the Seven, a broken bat blooper broke up the no-hitter.

What amazed me was that no one went out to speak to him.

Even though Danks is having a fantastic year, he is still a young ballplayer. If I was AJ or Coop, I would have walked out there and spoke to him. Tell the kid. “Hey, you are doing great, don’t lose your focus.” But, Danks did just that. After he walked the next batter, then Coop came out. At this point the damage was done, Danks focus was gone, and he left an offspeed pitch over the outside of the plate that JD Drew adjusted to and Boston took the lead 2-1 on the RBI Double. Boston would cruise to a 5-1 by the night’s end.

I have no clue why Ozzie went with Thornton. He has been overworked, and he hasn’t been getting the borderline calls as of late either. Two bad back-to-back outings for Thornton, and I know he has good stuff. But, it suffers when he is overworked.

I hate to say this, but I do not see the Sox winning the division with play like this. Walks are killing us. The bullpen needs to do alot better, and the offense needs to put up a few more runs. When our bullpen is fresh, holding onto a one run lead isn’t an issue.

Hopefully the Sox can pick up a veteran pitcher. It looks like Washburn is out of the pitcher since he is a fly-ball pitcher. Sox need something.

I really hoped that the win Sunday would spark the team; it did Danks, but he was the only one that seemed to be fired up. The offense looked lackluster. I think some of it had to do with Beckett’s performance. He was pitching just as well as Danks. Quentin looked horrible at the plate – swinging at so much stuff out of the strike zone. We were able to manufacture a run, but unfortunately that was all we could muster.

Tonight’s Lineup:

1. OC, SS
2. AJ, C
3. CQ, LF
4. JD, RF
5. Thome, DH
6. Ramirez, 2B
7. Griffey, CF
8. Swish, 1B
9. Uribe, 3B

Griffey makes it back into the lineup playing CF.  Paulie sits.

The White Sox send John Danks to the mound for the series win versus Boston tonight.  The Red Sox counter with Josh Beckett.

Danks will need to pitch well tonight to save the bullpen who have been taxed.

Griffey didn’t play for the consecutive day because of general soreness Sunday.  Hopefully he will be avaliable to play in the finale tonight.

Uribe, who has been stellar for the past week, was awarded 3B until the return of Joe Crede from the DL who is still struggling with back issues.  This kind of reminded me of the time Crede went on the DL in ’05 with a wrist injury, and when he came back, he went on a hot streak.  Hopefully Crede will be able to return soon and give the Sox an immediate impact.

I still want to see more situational hitting.  Hitting into double plays killed rallies Saturday for the Sox, and we should do more hit-and-runs, stealing, and bunting.  All or nothing with the Home Runs is fun to watch, but that will not cut it in the post season.