John Danks pitched six strong innings to lead
the White Sox to a 6-2 win over the Kansas City Royals in the finale
of a three-game series at U.S. Cellular Field.

Danks  (5-9) took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before losing the bid on a
single by Billy Butler. He gave up two runs on four hits while fanning six and
issuing  four walks.  Will Ohman worked a  scoreless ninth to seal the win for 
Chicago. 

"I knew I had it going from the third inning on," Danks said of his chance for
a no-hitter. "I knew I had a long way to go though."

Brent  Lillibridge clubbed a three-run homer, while Carlos Quentin picked up a
pair  of RBI and  Paul Konerko reached base five times for the Sox, winners in
eight of their last 10 games.

Mitch  Maier  ripped a two-run single,  while Jeff Francoeur and Melky Cabrera
had doubles for the Royals, who have dropped eight of their last 10.

Jeff  Francis (4-13) was tagged with the loss after lasting only 3 2/3 innings
and giving up six runs on 10 hits while walking a pair and striking out one.

"I  didn't really  have very sharp command," Francis said of his rough outing.
"When  you fall behind guys and don't have good command, you're kind of forced
to come in the zone and they took some good rips." 

The White Sox   opened the  scoring in  the first  inning. Alexei  Ramirez was
plunked  by  Francis with one  out, went  to third on  a single by Konerko and
scored  on  a base  hit to left  by Quentin. Following  an Alex Rios line-out,
Lillibridge  cracked his 10th home run of the season into the seats in left to
make it 4-0.

"To  be able to  get one over the fence was huge," Lillibridge said. "It was a
big  one early,  it put us up  4-0 and I knew  that was going to be enough for
John." 

Chicago  added a  pair of runs in  the fourth, extending its lead to 6-0. Juan
Pierre  and Ramirez  laced back-to-back singles and Konerko walked to load the
bases  with  no outs.  Pierre trotted home  on a sacrifice  fly by Quentin and
Ramirez scored on a sacrifice fly by Rios.

After  Butler  broke up  Danks' no-hit bid  with a single  down the first base
line,  which took a  bad hop over the glove of Lillibridge, Francouer ripped a
double down the left field line to give the Royals runners on second and third
with two outs. Mairer came through by poking a two-run single up the middle to
cut the Chicago lead to 6-2.

Royals  reliever Nathan Adcock got Ramirez to pop out to begin the home sixth,
but then walked the next three hitters to load the bases. He recovered and got
Lillibridge to ground into a 5-3 double play to deny the White Sox  a big inning.

Kansas  City  threatened in the  seventh, putting  runners on second and third
with  two down  against the Sox reliever Jason Frasor. But Frasor fanned Butler to
end the inning.

                                   Game Notes 

Chicago  reached .500 (60-60) for the first time since July 29, when they
were 52-52...Lillibridge's home run was his first against the Royals...Despite
the  win  on Sunday, Chicago is  an American League-worst  26-33 at home this
season...Francouer  smacked his  34th double of the season...Kansas City leads
the season series with the White Sox by a 6-5 count.