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Saturday Night/Sunday Morning Rangers Post-Game: McCarthy Impresses; Now It’s Danks’ Serve

• D-tails -Boxscore:  Rangers 9, White Sox 6; The Depot live game blog; Post-Game Show comment thread

ARLINGTON – Brandon McCarthy and John Danks say they pitch without looking over their shoulders at each other (McCarthy’s right shoulder, Danks’ left) or even at each other’s pitching lines. But timing can sometimes make it almost unavoidable for others to do that, like during this weekend’s White Sox visit to Rangers Ballpark.

Hank Blalock broke the Rangers' 0-for-12 RISP skid with a three-run homer in the third (Photo: R.P. Washburne)

On Saturday night, McCarthy made his first start against the team that drafted him in 2002 and sent him to Texas in the December 2006 trade that sent Danks to Chicago. McCarthy gave up only one run and three hits in five innings, leaving after one of three in-game rain delays, and improved his record to 3-0 as the Rangers built an eight-run lead and held on for a 9-6 victory that ended just after midnight. He retired the last 12 batters that he faced.

“I was able to settle down, get in a groove,” McCarthy said. “I started out kind of shaky. But on the whole, it was only [68] pitches. I’m pretty happy about that.”

The Rangers took a 3-1 lead in the third on a three-run home run by Hank Blalock. They then appeared to break the game open in the fourth with a six-run, six-hit barrage off Jose Contreras that included five doubles. But these are the Rangers, and relievers Luis Mendoza and Eddie Guardado gave up five runs before Darren O’Day restored order and Frank Francisco earned his seventh save of the season. In retiring the side in order in the ninth, Francisco tied a club record with his 11th consecutive scoreless outing at the beginning of the season. The official game was 2:37 plus 2:27 of rain delays, including 41 minutes before the first pitch was thrown.

Danks is scheduled to start in the Sunday night series finale. He’ll come off his only sub-par start of the season to date in facing Matt Harrison. Danks is 2-1 with a 4.13 ERA and has split a pair of career starts against the Rangers, both in Arlington – losing in August 2007 and winning last July.

Danks said before Saturday’s game that he anticipates needing 25, 30, maybe 40 tickets for family and friends. He was able to spend some time at his townhome in Austin, which he bought a few years ago when brother Jordan was playing for the University of Texas. (Jordan, a year younger, is an outfielder for the White Sox’s team in high Class A.) Got to see his black lab, which his parents dog-sit most of the time.

“It’s nice to be back in Texas … sleep in my own bed,” he said.

Last time out, Danks was touched up for five earned runs on eight hits over four innings in a loss at home to Seattle. Prior to that, he allowed only two earned runs in his first three starts – a no decision at home against Kansas City and wins at Tampa Bay and Baltimore. He chalked up his loss last week to just one of those days.

“There are a couple bad pitches that stick out in my mind. But everything else, I felt like I was throwing the ball where I wanted to,” Danks said. “I had plenty behind it. It was just one of those days where they were getting the bat on the ball and it was finding holes. There was a broken bat double where the bat went farther than the ball.”

Danks was starting with an extra day’s rest last Tuesday as a result of a rainout and a rescheduled doubleheader the next day but said that had nothing to do with his struggles.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen also shrugged off that performance, saying before the game that Danks simply didn’t throw strikes and constantly pitched deep into counts. Then, without prompting, Guillen launched into a passionate testimonial of his 24-year-old lefthander.

“This kid’s going to be unbelievable. I’m excited we got him,” Guillen said. “He pitched in big games last year, done real well. Every time he takes the field, we have a good chance to win. He’s a warrior, a real warrior.”

Danks supplied the White Sox’s only win in their Division Series against Tampa Bay. Among major league starters, his ERA improvement of 2.18 (from 5.50 in 2007 to 3.32) was second-best.

Harkening back to the halcyon days of the Rangers’ ol DVD, Danks said he might have last spoken with Edinson Volquez this spring and can’t recall talking to Thomas Diamond since soon after Diamond’s surgery in March 2007. “He was still kind of loopy,” he said.

Danks said he’s more comfortable with pitching against the team that he envisioned starting for when he was drafted with the ninth overall pick six years ago. He grew up in Austin rooting for both the Rangers and Astros.

“It is weird seeing some guys that I was drafted with and played in the minor leagues with, like Feldman and Kinsler,” Danks said. “Hopefully, they can have one bad game on Sunday.

“Things happen; it’s a business. I landed on my feet. I couldn’t be happier.”

And he said he doesn’t get caught up with comparing himself to McCarthy.

“It’s hard enough worrying about myself no less someone else,” he said. “I obviously wish him the best. It looks like he’s finally healthy and becoming the pitcher that they thought they were getting.”

Guillen can see Danks being pumped up pitching in front of his parents and friends but can’t see facing the Rangers being anything out of the ordinary for him anymore.

“I hope he gets pumped up better when we face Detroit, Minnesota, Kansas City,” Guillen said. “I don’t think he has to impress anybody with the Texas Rangers. They just made a trade for McCarthy.

“That’s the same way for McCarthy; I hope he comes out all pumped up and throws [expletive] all over the place.”

McCarthy threw no such [expletive], though four of the first seven batters that he faced reached base. Paul Konerko scored the lone run against him in the second inning after reaching on a hit by pitch. After the Blalock homer for the 3-1 lead going to the fourth, McCarthy responded by retiring Chicago in order on 13 pitches.

McCarthy sat through the Rangers’ six-run fourth and the 22-minute rain delay before the fifth began. He only needed 14 pitches to get three straight out for an official game.

“The first [rain delay] wasn’t too bad,” McCarthy said. “We were able to stay warm in the ‘pen. With the big inning we had before it, it all kind of added up. The longer one [1:10], I was all set to go back out for the sixth. But it got to the point where it was a little too much. It was best to shut it down.”

McCarthy, lowering his ERA to 4.67, has gone five or six innings in each of his five starts. This was the first one in which he walked no one. And his pitch count was much lower, each previous stint between 91 and 105.

Odd to face the White Sox for the first time? “A little bit,” he said. “We’re three years removed from it now. If it had been the year after, it could have been a little bit more. A lot of those guys are gone. It’s interesting to face them, but it really wasn’t a big thing in my mind.”