John Danks did not deserve to lose this game, but for much of the night that's where it looked like he was headed. He walked one and struck out 8 over 8 innings pitched but left the mound trailing 1-0, thanks to, you guessed it, a pitcher the White Sox have never seen before.
It was a typical Sox outing against a n00b. They had plenty of baserunners as El Diablo walked 4, but didn't have a single hit that left the infield in the game's first 8 innings even though Miguel Batista added 3 walks of his own.
Thankfully, David Aardsma entered in the 9th inning. You remember him as the guy who looked great for three weeks in '07, only to remember who he was the rest of the season. Well this year he's having a case of amnesia, and a lot of Safeco-aided flyball luck. That luck appeared to continue for the first batter he faced when Paul Konerko lifted a ball deep to center field only to be caught at the wall by Franklin Gutierrez.
3 batters later, his luck ran out. Alexei did his thing, and there was much joy in Soxville.
The win improves the White Sox record to 1-49 this season when trailing after 8 innings.