Morning Box Score

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Aug 12, 2010 1:00PM

Sox Even Up With Twins
The White Sox rode timely offense and a good outing from John Danks to a 6-1 win over the Twins to pull even with Minnesota atop the AL Central. Carlos Quentin belted a two-run homer to open up scoring and the Sox also used a three-run fifth to build a lead. Danks was also sharp, striking out seven and allowing only one run over eight innings of work. But the Sox tried to downplay this being a "must-win" at this point in the season. Ozzie said after the win, "I don't want to wake up tomorrow morning and people in Chicago area panicking about it." Of course, the teams have seven games left against each other - including a three-game set next week - so there are still opportunities to make up any lost ground. Still, we have to imagine the Sox would have been sweating just a teeny bit if they had lost this one. But they didn't so... there you are. The Sox try to take the rubber game of the series and take the division lead back later tonight (7:10 p.m., CSN).

Cubs Stumble Against Giants
The Cubs spent most of last night playing catch up with the Giants and ultimately just couldn't stay with them, losing 5-4. The Cubs were already down 3-0 when Marlon Byrd's solo homer got the Cubs on the board in the fourth. RBIs from Xavier Nady and Alfonso Soriano in the sixth tied the game up and, after giving up a run to the Giants, Tyler Colvin hit a solo homer in the seventh to tie the game at 4-4. But it was still the Giants' game to win as Justin Berg gave up a solo homer to Pat Burrell. And just for the hell of it, the Cubs traded Mike Fontenot to the Giants for minor leaguer Evan Crawford. The Cubs are 2-8 in August and wrap up this visit to San Francisco later this afternoon (2:45 p.m., WGN).