Just over 3 hours until first pitch of game two today, so I'll be brief.
I get on Ozzie Guillen quite a bit when he makes dumb decisions, but in the first game today he made some great moves.
- Pulling Danks with a low pitch count, giving the team flexibility for this weekend when he's due to pitch on short rest
- Letting Danks go back out for the 7th with the purpose of pitching to only Johnny Damon, regarless of the result (a 3-pitch strikeout)
- Leaving Bobby Jenks in the pen so that he's available for the night-cap
- Letting Aardsma and Thorton work more than an inning, facing batters from both sides of the plate
As for the kid, Danks: Yes, JRE, he was impressive, particularly in the first three innings when he seemed to have a little extra zip on his fastball. After that, however, the Yanks weren't fooled much by the straight pitch, hitting a number of balls hard for outs. Danks had a bit of trouble getting his fastball over later in the game, but his curveball -- probably the best curve we've seen from him this year -- continued to bail him out.
It says a lot about his future as a big league pitcher that he was able to cruise -- though the Yankees do struggle against LHP, not nearly as much as the ChiSox -- without great control of his fastball and a changeup that was non-existent. Sitting here 10 minutes after the conclusion of the game, I can't think of a single time I saw Danks throw a changeup, which, at times, can be his best pitch.
The kid's got a bright future.