Danks Helps White Sox Extend Season

Left-Hander Has 2nd Big Outing in Less Than a Week: White Sox 5, Rays 3

CHICAGO, Oct. 5 -- He is 23, too young for a reputation, but just good enough that he might become anything. He is John Danks, twice now the savior of Chicago's season. He left the field Sunday with two outs in the seventh inning, done after 105 pitches, the point where yet again he'd met the demands befitting an ascendant ace.

Off the mound he walked, saluted by the black-clad White Sox crowd, and just before he slipped into the dugout he removed his cap with a wave. Thanks, Danks, for keeping the season alive.

Though this was Danks's first career postseason start, it was not his first must-win game; he's done enough in the last week, in fact, to launch a candidacy for baseball's most valuable title: that of a big-game pitcher. With the White Sox facing elimination in front of 40,142 at U.S. Cellular Field, Danks laid the groundwork for a 5-3 Chicago win over the Tampa Bay Rays. No matter how the White Sox' season ends, this group will be known as the team best at avoiding its own winter, and Danks will be remembered as the bullish, blond-bearded lefty who held up Chicago's chances. Again and again.

On Sunday, 6 2/3 innings (three runs) did the trick. It could have been better, too, because Danks had smothered the Rays for one run through six. Every time the "50" on his uniform faced the wall, he found his best stuff. There he was in the sixth, starting the inning with six balls in seven pitches, awakening the bullpen, inviting Manager Ozzie Guillén from the dugout for some counsel, and how did Danks respond? He dug himself from a 3-1 count, struck out Carl Crawford looking, and then used one more strikeout and a flyout to end the inning. Only the seventh-inning two-run homer from B.J. Upton prevented Danks from approaching his mastery of last Tuesday, Game No. 163, where he determined the Central Division tiebreaker with eight innings, two hits and no runs.

"I like being relied upon in a game like this," Danks said.

This is the way it works on Chicago's South Side. Facing the end, nothing changes, Danks said. Players keep their card games going until 30 minutes before first pitch. They watch football on television. Heck, elimination games are the norm.

And they're helping to grow one pitcher's stature. If you know little of Danks, it's because his 12-9 regular season record disguised his true value. His 3.32 ERA ranked fifth-best in the American League. No pitcher but Cleveland's Cliff Lee matched Danks's 22 starts with two earned runs or less. For this game, though 17-game winner Gavin Floyd was due to pitch, Guillén bumped up Danks in the pitching order. He wanted a lefty against Tampa's lefty-heavy lineup. And more specifically, he wanted a lefty who could match the moment.

"This kid has been battling all year long," Guillén said. "Another game for him the way he battled."

"You see him grow every time out there," Chicago catcher A.J. Pierzynski said.

Maybe it's fitting that the pitcher who forced a Game 4, the pitcher who welcomes the big moment, was acquired in a high stakes move by General Manager Kenny Williams. On Dec. 23, 2006, Williams pulled off one of baseball's rarest maneuvers, dealing youth for youth, top prospect for top prospect. The deal with Texas involved five players, but essentially, Williams swapped Brandon McCarthy for Danks, the Rangers' first-round selection in 2003. Williams was roundly ripped for the deal. Talent evaluators liked Danks, sure, but McCarthy was a prospect of the Félix Hernández-Matt Cain ilk. Future ace -- that's what Texas's front office called him.

What happened? McCarthy never developed. Danks honed his curveball and grew up faster than anticipated. And in the final innings of Danks's start last week against the Twins, Texas owner Tom Hicks text messaged Chicago chairman Jerry Reinsdorf with a message: "You owe me big time on Danks."

Of course, more must-wins await. Floyd will face Tampa Bay's Andy Sonnanstine in Game 4 on Monday. The White Sox have a reputation on the line.

"This team has been the most resilient team I've ever been around," Pierzynski said. "I've never seen a team in big games act as normal and as unflappable as this team has been. Everything is the same. No one changed anything. That's a good sign. Obviously we have to win two more games But this team has been amazing."

Added Danks: "You know, it almost feels like guys are just happy being here, you know, because there is no pressure on anyone. No one is acting like this is do-or-die."