White Sox 1, Orioles 0: John Danks, out of nowhere

The recap for this one is pretty simple: John Danks pulled one of those random great games out of his butt, Jose Abreu hit an opposite-field homer, and David Robertson looked as dominant as he did in April. That's really all there was to the White Sox' third straight victory.

Abreu opened up a long stretch in Chicago for the Sox with a homer that U.S. Cellular Field affords. Leading off the third inning and down 0-2, Abreu went with an outside-corner Ubaldo Jimenez fastball and poked it into the Bullpen Bar for a 1-0 lead.

Somehow, that was all the runs Danks needed. He completed seven innings while facing just two Baltimore threats.

Conor Gillaspie of all people bailed him out in the fifth. After Danks started the inning by allowing singles to Chris Davis and J.J. Hardy, Gillaspie gloved a bouncer from Steve Pearce, stepped on third and made a good throw to second for the rare 5-4 double play. Danks put a runner back into scoring position by walking Caleb Joseph, but Ryan Flaherty grounded out to short to end the threat, with Gillaspie atoning for his third-inning error.

In the seventh, Danks found himself in a similar situation after a one-out walk to Hardy and a bloop single for Pearce. Further complicating matters, a wild pitch with Joseph at the plate took away the double play. After a couple foul balls, Danks' seventh pitch of the at-bat was a curve that Joseph got a piece of. It just wasn't a big enough piece, as Flowers secured the foul tip for the strikeout. That left another threat to die with Flaherty, who hit a routine flyout to left to end the inning.

That also brought Danks' night to a close. He pitched seven innings, allowing just seven baserunners (five singles, two walks) while striking out five. Jake Petricka pitched a 1-2-3 eighth, and Robertson struck out the side in the ninth for a perfect 17th save.

Outside of the Abreu blast, the White Sox offense didn't come up with much. They had a couple of decent opportunities in the first two innings. They started a two-out rally in the first, but Avisail Garcia grounded out to short with runners on first and second.

They took it up a notch in the second, as Gillaspie walked and Alexei Ramirez singled through the right side. But Tyler Flowers lined out to short, Carlos Sanchez struck out, and Adam Eaton's hard grounder went right to the first baseman Pearce to kill that one, too.

That was their last at-bat with runners in scoring position, although not for a lack of trying. With two outs in the third, Garcia thought about taking second when Davis flopped unsuccessfully for the bloop single in right field. But Flaherty recovered the carom cleanly, and Garcia checked up about 30 feet from first, starting a rundown and resulting in the customary TOOTBLAN.

Bullet points:

*Danks posted a 6.85 ERA in June after ending his May with a shutout. Tonight's game lowered his ERA below 5.00 once again.

*Adam Jones is somehow 1-for-33 against Danks over his career now.

*The (extra-base) hits keep coming for Melky Cabrera, who was 2-for-4 with a double.

*Both teams were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position. Both teams stranded six.

Record: 35-42 | Box score | Play-by-play | Highlights