Important stuff from Tuesday's 16-0 slobberknocking at the hands of another last place team

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This one's not going up on the Danks' family mantle, not with the room that needs to be cleared for Jordan Danks' Charlotte Knights All-Time Hits Leader plaque. Danks had held off a night of nonexistent command, wayward 89 mph fastballs and hanging changeups for a longer stretch than we thought him capable of in this post-surgery life, but ohhhhhhh did he pay the piper Tuesday night. He might have paid ahead for the next couple weeks if we're lucky.

To Danks' credit, four batters into the top of the first inning, it was only 3-0 after an Adrian Beltre home run. To, uh, not his credit, Danks was mostly brutalized by no-hit backup catchers forced into action. Robinson Chirinos opened the second inning scoring with his 10th home run, and ended Danks' night by rattling his 11th into the left field bullpen. J.P. Arencibia, who basically has Leury Garcia's plate approach, reached base four-straight times, including a two-run double and another home run. Danks gave up four bombs in 4.2 innings, walking five, and striking out five. Striking out five! Ruining the K/9 statistic, again.

Recognizing that this night was about something bigger than them, the Sox offense holstered their weapons.

Box Score 

  • Remember John Danks having his ERA under 4.00 by the All-Star break? Say hello to 4.93 less than a month later with even worse peripherals. As Jim Margalus noted Tuesday night, he eclipsed his 2013 innings total in this start, and could be hitting the wall physically while his performance is sliding down it.
  • Maikel Cleto is back from Charlotte and still couldn't hit a bedsheet if it was draped over his head. He allowed a home run to Shin-Soo Choo and took another line drive off the leg. Unrelated but just happened to notice that Matt Lindstrom and Zach Putnam both had scoreless rehab appearances on this night. Unrelated. Completely.
  • Colby Lewis, fabricated rules connoisseur, veteran of many surgeries and now the proud owner of a 5.50 ERA, threw a seven-hit shutout, and struck out Adam Eaton, Jose Abreu and Tyler Flowers twice each. There was almost nothing good about this game.
  • Andre Rienzo' spirit might be broken. In compiling another disaster-fest of an inning, Rienzo allowed his fourth run of the seventh when a swinging strikeout of Joe Adduci squirted by just-installed Adrian Nieto. Rienzo followed it up with another wild pitch. He used to look happy on the mound
  • But Adam Dunn pitched. With no other reliever capable of launching a real argument of superiority, the big man took the mound for the ninth and threw a lot of 80-83 mph slop from the right side with some interesting running action on his fastball. It could have been because he threw everything at changeup speed, leading him to get knocked around for a run on two hits. I saw a little Gavin Floyd in his delivery as he worked to push out and release out in front with his huge frame. He definitely tried to throw legitimate stuff and use grips and genuinely gave it the college try on a night the pitching staff made MLB lineups seem hopelessly unnavigable. His final triumphant moment came when he ended the inning with a flyout to the wall. It was better than the others managed.

 

Team Record: 55-59

Next game is Wednesday at 1:10pm CT on CSN vs. Texas

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