Finding Their Swing
Detroit, MI – A strong performance by left-hander John Danks in his season debut went to waste due to a lack of run support, but Danks will be happy to know that his teammates’ bats have found their groove going into his next turn in the rotation.
Behind Danks and their resurgent offense, the Chicago White Sox will look for a fourth straight lopsided victory in the middle game of a three-game matinee series Tuesday against the host Detroit Tigers.
Oddsmakers from online sports book SBG Global.com have made the Chicago -120 moneyline favorites for Tuesday’s game against the Detroit. Current MLB Public Betting Information shows that 63% of more than 2035 bets for this game have been placed on the Detroit -120.
Coming off a breakout season, Danks (0-0, 0.00 ERA) was dominant in his first start of 2009, allowing three singles in six shutout innings Thursday against Kansas City. The White Sox (4-3) didn’t score until the ninth, though, and lost 2-1 as part of a three-game skid.
After a slow start offensively, Chicago seems to have quickly sorted out its issues, racking up 24 runs and 35 hits while winning its last three games by an average of more than five runs.
In Monday afternoon’s series opener against the Tigers, Carlos Quentin homered twice while Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye each hit their 300th career home run to spark the White Sox to a 10-6 win.
"Two home runs, three home runs, fine," Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen told his team’s official Web site. "But after that, we created more runs, had good at-bats. We weren’t chasing bad pitches and took advantage of that. We know we’re going to hit. It was just a matter of time."
Quentin now has four home runs in his last four games, and he and Konerko each drove in four runs Monday.
Scoring runs against Detroit isn’t exactly a new trend for the White Sox, who reached double digits four times while going 12-6 versus the Tigers last year. They’ve won four straight in the series and eight of 10 dating back to last season.
Chicago’s sluggers will try to continue their onslaught Tuesday as they get their first look at Tigers rookie Rick Porcello (0-1, 7.20).
The talented 20-year-old right-hander – a hard-throwing first-round pick who earned a spot in the rotation despite never before pitching above Single-A – was a bit shaky in his major league debut Thursday in Toronto, allowing four runs and nine hits in five innings of a 6-2 loss.
"He looked a little young at times, bounced some curveballs, but he also threw some nasty ones and got some strikeouts on them," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "He’s got some work to do, but that’s something to work with."
The Tigers (4-4) had won three straight before Monday’s game. They’ve scored 31 runs in their last four contests, but despite a three-run home run from Ramon Santiago and three RBIs from Josh Anderson, their offense couldn’t keep up against Chicago.
Detroit’s bats rarely had success last season with Danks, who was 2-0 with a 2.41 ERA in three starts against his AL Central rivals.
With Curtis Granderson hitless in 12 career at-bats against Danks and Placido Polanco 4-for-18 (.222), the Tigers may need Magglio Ordonez to continue his success versus the southpaw. Ordonez is 10-for-17 with six RBIs against Danks.
The White Sox will hope to have second baseman Chris Getz back in the lineup after the Detroit-area native missed Monday’s game with a sore elbow. The rookie, who played at the University of Michigan, would be making his first major league appearance in his home state.
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Posted: 4/14/09 1:30AM ET
