On Thursday, the White Sox acquired the strike-deficient reliever in exchange for minor leaguer Matt Ball.

The 26-year-old right-hander has pitched in parts of three seasons with the Rangers and Red Sox, walking more hitters than he’s struck out in 58.1 innings. A former top prospect who Boston selected in the first round of the 2010 MLB Draft, Ranaudo was ranked No. 100 in the Baseball Prospectus Top 101 prior to the 2011 season and was the No. 2 prospect in Boston’s system, per Kevin Goldstein. A year later, he dropped off the Top 101 and all the way down to No. 9 in the system with Goldstein writing:

The Good: On a good day, Ranaudo looks like a future middle-of-the-rotation starter. He gets good movement on his low-90s fastball, and his height makes the pitch hard to pick up. His curve has the potential to be an above-average offering, and he has some feel for a changeup.
The Bad: Ranaudo’s stuff and command vary wildly from start to start. He tips his pitches in his glove to the point that Carolina League scouts were calling them before delivery late in the season. His command has never been special, and with his size, he struggles to maintain his release point at times. His injury history is a concern, and he still needs to prove he can handle a full workload.
Perfect World Projection: Number-four starter, though some scouts see him as just a bullpen arm at this point.

It’s safe to say the prospect shine wore off on Ranaudo rather quickly, but he’s another arm and you can never have too many of those. He also follows Hector Noesi as the second pitcher the White Sox acquired from Texas shortly after pounding him into oblivion. Back in 2014 the Sox traded for Noesi five days after tagging him for seven runs.

Ranaudo will begin his White Sox career in Triple-A Charlotte.

Lead photo credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

1. For the first time all year, the White Sox fell in a game started by Mat Latos. Of course, this was bound to happen, and looked increasingly inevitable in Latos’ last two starts, where he allowed four runs in five IP in consecutive starts. In Wednesday’s game, Latos neither had good stuff or command, resulting in season highs of five walks and five ER in just 5.1 IP while failing to retire a batter via strikeout. Despite this, Latos left the game with a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the sixth, but the runner on third he left to Dan Jennings scored on an Ian Desmond single with two outs. Jennings then allowed Desmond to score with two outs on an Adrian Beltre single, giving the Rangers a lead they would not cough up.
2. After hitting his 11th home run of the year, Todd Frazier made a spectacular play by diving into the stands to catch a Prince Fielder foul pop. Frazier, unfortunately, slammed his jaw into a seat that had been left vacant by fan, and came up holding his chin with his glove in obvious pain. Fearing the worst, Hawk Harrelson abandoned Steve Stone in the broadcast booth and sprinted to the clubhouse, where he learned (and subsequently reported) that Frazier broke no bones but bit through his lip, which would eventually require five stitches to sew up. Carlos Sanchez replaced Frazier, going 0-for-3 with a strikeout, retired twice in a runner on first, nobody out situation.
3. For the first time this year, the White Sox bullpen showed vulnerability, blowing four different leads it was brought on to protect in the three game series. While the Rangers offense is potent, and David Robertson and Nate Jones are unlikely to scuffle like they did on Monday night with any frequency, the ‘pen’s recent woes seems to justify a recent Ken Rosenthal report that the White Sox are looking into acquiring a reliever. The bullpen’s underbelly is soft, and when the back end of the rotation cannot make it deep enough for set up men to be used, pitchers like Dan Jennings and Scott Carroll are thrust into situations they aren’t always capable of holding down.
4. As the pitching staff ran into its first real struggles this year, the offense seems to be rounding into form. The White Sox scored five or more runs in three consecutive games for the first time all year, bringing their scoring rate to an above-league-average 4.4 runs per game. Despite ultimately losing this three game series (which notably was on the road against a strong Rangers team) this is certainly an encouraging sign.
5. The White Sox now move on to face the scuffling New York Yankees in the Big Apple, sending Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, and Miguel Gonzalez against a team that is scoring the fourth fewest runs per game in the American League. If Sale and Quintana can continue to pitch as they have, and the White Sox can jump on the weak part of the Yankees pitching staff, they should be able to return to their winning ways.

Lead photo credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

1. It was singles night at Globe Life Park as play got underway. The top and bottom halves of the opening frame started with three straight singles each. The light hitting contest netted the Sox just one run while the Rangers were able to mix in a walk with an additional single to grab themselves an early 2-1 lead. A foreshadow, I suppose, for what was a battle of escalation. 12 singles were recorded between the two teams before Melky Cabrera opened up the park for extra base hit business in the third. Once that achievement was unlocked, the Sox would add two more doubles and a triple from Jimmy Rollins. But the Texas onslaught was stronger, tacking three home runs on to their two doubles and a triple – the Rangers would manage 17 hits in all, the most allowed by Sox pitching all season.

2. The rain delay following the second inning certainly played a role in the offensively skewed evening. Both starting pitchers returned to the mound following a one hour and 18 minute rain delay. Carlos Rodon’s layoff was a solid twenty minutes longer while the Sox teed off on a combination of a less-than-sharp Derek Holland and Anthony Ranaudo. Rodon’s break also seemed to help his command, looking much better in each inning than he had the previous, even ticking up his velocity as the game wore on. Robin Ventura’s commitment to leaving his young left-hander in the game seemed ill-advised, but also acceptable given the White Sox constant extensions of their lead. Alas, the six runs allowed over his 6 and two-third innings were not enough of a base for the bullpen to stand steadily upon.

3. Scott Carroll, who had been warming intermittently during Rodon’s later innings, ultimately replaced him in the seventh. He recorded the frame’s final out, but the eighth inning proved far more hazardous. A single, a double, and a walk were all he had time for – Ventura removed him, and brought on Zach Duke — who gave up a single before managing to get Rougned Odor to strike out swinging on a curveball. With the bases still loaded, Matt Albers faced the heart of the Rangers order with disastrous results. Adrian Beltre plated one with a sacrifice fly, Ian Desmond sailed a triple over the head of Austin Jackson for a pair more, and Ryan Rua punctuated it all with three-run homer. A seven run inning to erase a five run lead.

4. The White Sox used a walk fueled rally in the fourth to pad their on-base stats. Five walks in that inning enabled them to reach seven on the night, making this the fourth game they’ve notched that many in a single contest. They had four such games in all of 2015.

5. A day after an extra-inning affair forced Ventura’s hand a bit in letting Rodon stay out as long as he did, even having had so much time to cool off during the rain delay. Rodon rebounded nicely, considering, but the bullpen had to be dipped into more than he would have liked anyway. With Mat Latos due up next in the rotation, if things aren’t close, you can expect to see a starting pitcher lingering on the mound far longer than would generally be desired once again.

Team Record: 23-11
Next game is Wednesday at 1:05 p.m. CT vs. the Texas Rangers on CSN.
Lead Photo Credit: Jerome Miron – USA Today Sports Images

Carlos Rodon’s 2016 is not yielding the results that the path his 2015 season carved out for him. The third of an inning debacle against the Angels didn’t help much, but he’s also allowed 11 runs in his three following starts. The standout within, is a 6 2/3 inning outing in which he struck out seven while allowing only two hits against these Texas Rangers. Sometimes things go your way, and sometimes things don’t. A cFIP of 91 behind a 4.36 ERA suggests that Rodon’s season to date has something to do with things not breaking too well for him. Watching the games, you can see that he’s still got some room to step forward, making the decent peripherals all the more encouraging. The bullpen is, of course, somewhat taxed after an extra-inning affair, and with Wednesday being a day after night game featuring Mat Latos, who has yet to show himself as a likely candidate to go deep into games, there is a bit of extra pressure on Rodon to be efficient and keep from issuing free passes.

Known cut-up and injury risk Derek Holland will try to right his wobbly ship after a rough outing that very much resembled what Rodon experienced against the Angels. Holland was enjoying a nice start to the season before running into the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre where they torched him for 11 runs, all earned, in 2 2/3 innings. Performance for Holland has been largely inconsistent since knee surgery following the 2013 season. His strikeout rate has never recovered, and the reduced use of his sinker this season is evidenced by a ground ball rate about 10 percent lower than what he’s produced during the rest of his career.

White Sox Lineup:

1. Adam Eaton – RF
2. Jimmy Rollins – SS
3. Jose Abreu – 1B
4. Todd Frazier – 3B
5. Melky Cabrera – LF
6. Brett Lawrie – 2B
7. Avisail Garcia – DH
8. Dioner Navarro – C
9. Austin Jackson – CF

Rangers Lineup:

1. Delino DeShields – CF
2. Rougned Odor – 2B
3. Adrian Beltre – 3B
4. Ian Desmond – LF
5. Prince Fielder – DH
6. Ryan Rua – 1B
7. Elvis Andrus – SS
8. Bryan Holaday – C
9. Drew Stubbs – RF

Today’s game will be broadcast on CSN and FSSW at 7:05 p.m.
Lead Photo Credit: Jerome Miron – USA Today Sports Images

It turns out, it was not a fun exercise. The last club to make such a climb was the 2012 Detroit Tigers, who were not even in second place in mid-June when they dipped to a season-worst six games behind another surprising White Sox team. They came back.

Six games is a bit easier to climb back from when the division tops out at 88 wins, but the 2011 Tigers were down eight games in early May, and wound up winning the division with 95. Going 46-24 in the second half will help with that.

Instead of assurance, this is a reminder that while the White Sox have started off great, and the significant majority of 23-10 stretches throughout history belong to contenders, and while it is typical for division winners to hang near the top of the standings all year long, they remain in target range for a brutal league correction.

2. A factoid from looking at Monday night’s box score that stuck: The White Sox finished the night with five players with an OBP over .350. Those players are Adam Eaton, Brett Lawrie, Melky Cabrera, Alex Avila and Avisail Garcia.

The encouraging takeaway, is that this shows a lot of life and productivity throughout the order outside the slow-starting middle core of Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier, the former of whom is a decent bet to join this group by the end of the year, and the latter can be counted on to be productive without doing so.

Another interpretation is that this is profoundly weird. Eaton is the only person who would have been projected to reach base at this rate at the outset of the season. Lawrie was devalued because of his lack of on base skills, but has discovered a 12.5 percent walk rate this season. Cabrera has been able to touch .350 in peak seasons and may be having one of his better ones right now, while taking pitches might be the only thing Avila is still proficient at offensively at this state of his career. And then there’s Avisail, the biggest enigma, and yet statistically the most successful hitter in the lineup.

It’s a decent microcosm for the lineup as a whole: full of guys it doesn’t seem like can be trusted but cannot really be pushed out while the team is rolling.

3. Which brings up Austin Jackson, who has none of these outward indicators of success (.243/.302/.346) and has experienced such a steady drop in power production over the last four years that there is a post in my draft folder about reasons for optimism about his offense that has been sitting there, almost completely blank, for more than a month.

That said, Jackson seems borderline immovable at this stage. His stewardship of center field has unlocked the final stage of Adam Eaton: All-Star, and helped forged the elite defensive identity that has been the lifeblood of this team and the franchise’s turnaround. Add on the fact that he’s been fulfilling manager’s dream tasks like executing safety squeezes, and Jackson cannot be replaced by anyone besides a superior version of Austin Jackson.

After being a team that could obviously use a bat of any kind at any place, until the Garcia situation normalizes they can only slot in offensive upgrades at center field, shortstop and catcher, which is where everyone wants offensive upgrades.

4. Abreu, Frazier, Cabrera, Lawrie and Jackson have all played all 33 games this season. Eaton, who got a day off when his wife gave birth to their child, has played 32.

No one who tuned in Monday night came away very taken with the versatility offered by Jerry Sands, and the temptation to mess up a team that’s on an inconceivable roll is understandable, but the law of diminishing returns is bound to start rearing its head here soon. With Carlos Sanchez and Tyler Saladino holding major league experience at every spot on the infield between them, and the primary DH being a 24 year old who was a regular right fielder up until this year (albeit a bad one), and Eaton’s center field experience, there really isn’t a reason not be more explorative with what little depth they have.

5. Baseball Prospectus’ own Craig Goldstein excitedly messaged Ethan and I about a guy he took video of throwing on the back fields in Spring Training this year who was “super nasty.” I expected him to forward video of not Spencer Adams or Carson Fulmer, but someone I was more familiar with than Zach Thompson.

Watching the 22-year-old, six-foot-seven right-hander, there’s plenty of inconsistency and erratic movement, but the reason for the video is clear: he’s got a big-mid 90s fastball with plenty of downward plane, which is the type of tool that you don’t need to surround with much else to be an effective middle reliever if it can be commanded. Future Sox noted he was a project at the time he was drafted in the fifth round of 2014, and a knock on him would be a lack of development and refinement as he repeats Low-A in his second full year in the organization. So it’s possible that he was just this tantalizing when he was first picked. His game log, as could be expected, is a roller coaster, and 16 walks in 29.1 innings blunts some of the thrill of how hard it is to square him up.

I wouldn’t bother expecting Thompson before 2018, and that would still include a big breakthrough at some point, but hey, I promised Craig I would use his video.

Lead Image Credit: Jerome Miron // USA Today Sports Images

Miguel Gonzalez has done his time at Triple-A Charlotte and will now try to permanently take the place of John Danks where Erik Johnson failed to. Gonzalez wasn’t necessarily impressive in his first attempt at a start with the White Sox, but he did he flash some tools that might enable him to produce a quality start or two without the benefit of pure luck. After getting touched early by a very strong Toronto offense, Gonzalez was able to regroup and get himself into the sixth inning, an accomplishment that helped push the Sox toward victory. This is what is being asked of him, preferably without the pronounced blips in the early innings; pitch yourself a reasonably OK that-wasn’t-so-bad five innings and the team is in decent shape.

For their part in this contest, the Rangers are sending out Colby Lewis. Lewis has started six games so far this year and only has two decisions to show for it. The scales of fortune are not out to get him though. He’s outperforming his FIP (3.32 ERA vs 5.34 FIP) by enough that despite an ERA+ being well above average, cFIP thinks he’s a good bet to be purely average from here on out. He did face the Sox in Chicago last month, allowing just one run over six innings despite walking four along with his six hits, the lone run coming via a Melky Cabrera home run. Lewis is many years old, and his best years appear to be behind him, but the White Sox have not been able to score more than two runs against him in any start since 2010. In the time since he’s thrown two shutouts, and last month’s Sox victory was the first time they’ve won a game that Colby Lewis started since 2010 as well.

Alex Avila is back in the lineup, fresh off of a rehab assignment. Offensive contributions from Avila to this point have been light, but he does provide the service of squatting for a few hours so that Navarro doesn’t have to, and does so without completely sabotaging the chances for victory.

White Sox Lineup:

1. Adam Eaton – RF
2. Jimmy Rollins – SS
3. Jose Abreu – 1B
4. Todd Frazier – 3B
5. Melky Cabrera – LF
6. Brett Lawrie – 2B
7. Avisail Garcia – DH
8. Alex Avila – C
9. Austin Jackson – CF

Rangers Lineup:

1. Rougned Odor – 2B
2. Nomar Mazara – RF
3. Adrian Beltre – 3B
4. Prince Fielder – DH
5. Ian Desmond – LF
6. Mitch Moreland – 1B
7. Elvis Andrus – SS
8. Bobby Wilson – C
9. Delino DeShields – CF

Today’s game will be broadcast on WPWR and FSSW at 7:05 p.m.
Lead Photo Credit: Nick Turchiaro – USA Today Sports Images

1. Mat Latos has the finest dancing shoes in the American League. His ERA is now sitting at a healthy 0.74 on the young year. After giving up a massive solo shot in the first inning, Latos dealt with runners in scoring position in each of his last four innings, and got improbable inning-ending double plays from Prince Fielder, and turned one himself on a hot comebacker from Ryan Rua to end the fifth and sixth innings, the latter provoking a huge fist pump from Latos on his way back to the dugout. A good argument could have been made to pull him from either inning, since he wound up with a season-high 109 pitches, but instead he emerged spotless.

We’ve been wondering how real this flourish from Latos has been all month, but first three outings were dominance compared to Sunday. Latos made mistakes up in the zone frequently and advanced metrics will not love his two strikeouts and walks on the day. But he’s the fourth starter on this team, on a one-year deal. Latos is getting outs. That’s enough.

2. White Sox offense against Derek Holland was reduced to a series of weak flies in the early going. New everyday catcher Dioner Navarro‘s destruction of a 3-2 fastball out to left in the third inning tied the game at 1, but also ended a no-hit bid. He still seemed like he was cruising until he ran into the Melky Cabrera/Brett Lawrie duo in the bottom of the fifth. After Cabrera worked a leadoff walk, Lawrie boomed a double to the right-center wall, and both scored after a wild pitch and a Navarro sacrifice fly.

3. Sox relievers entered the day with a 1.60 ERA; best in all of baseball, and only added to their record with three shutout frames Sunday. Nate Jones pitched out of a minor jam in the eighth, David Robertson struck out the side after blowing a save Saturday, and even Zach Duke was smooth in a perfect inning of work. Relegated to LOOGY work early on, Duke has worked a full inning or more his last five times out and only been scored upon once.

4. The White Sox continue to thrive despite getting little from their offensive core. Adam Eaton and Jose Abreu went a combined 1-for-8, with Eaton stranding four, including an inning-ending double play to kill a bases loaded opportunity in the seventh. An Abreu double in the eighth provided some optimism that he is on his way out of his slump, and sparked an insurance run off a Lawrie RBI single, but the big man is still only at .183/.259/.338 on the year.

5. Texas right fielder Nomar Mazara might have the talent to play at this level for just a little bit. He got a 89 mph Latos fastball up in the zone in the first inning and hit it to the Adirondacks. It was estimated at 418 feet to right field but maybe that’s just the point where the stringers lost track of it.

Team Record: 13-6

Next game is Monday at Toronto at 6:07 p.m. CT on CSN

Lead Photo Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski // USA Today Sports Images

1. With a swiftly draining pen in the 11th inning, Rangers manager Jeff Banister didn’t reach for closer Shawn Tolleson, but instead stuck with Nick Martinez — a hot starter at this point last year — and in return got two walks, a hit batsman, and the game-winning hit the Sox couldn’t find for themselves most of the day.

Jose Abreu poked a grounder through a drawn-in infield to redeem a 1-for-6 day, and the Sox took their second straight game against the Rangers, 4-3.

2. The White Sox offense spent much of the game stuck in a loop, living off a Melky Cabrera solo shot as their only run, blowing scoring opportunities and threatening to waste a brilliant return to form by Carlos Rodon. With all day and plenty of opportunity to snap out of it, they finally got around to it in the eighth inning, just before the sun settled behind the upper deck seats Saturday afternoon.

A solo blast to the left field bullpen, Todd Frazier‘s fifth home run of the year, tied the game at two in the bottom of the eighth and injury replacement Dioner Navarro put the Sox ahead with an RBI single to center, but curious decisions and worse execution kept the Sox from extending their lead. A squeeze bunt from Austin Jackson was way too hard, and led to Avisail Garcia getting gunned down at the plate, and Navarro was thrown out by a mile trying to score from second on an Adam Eaton single to end the inning. The lack of an extra run was trivial for all of five minutes, when Ian Desmond walked, stole a base, scooted to third when a low throw got through the infield, and scored on a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth to give David Robertson his first blown save of the year.

3. The White Sox almost ended things in the bottom half, but Jimmy Rollins stealing second and advancing to third was wiped out by a bizarre unintentional interference call on Jose Abreu‘s backswing, and Frazier was robbed of what was at the very least a double when rookie Nomar Mazara made a fantastic leaping catch at the wall in right field.

4. Before the late outburst, the Sox hitters were stuck in a loop. They liked the fourth inning so much they played it twice, and in doing so revealed the holes currently present in their struggling lineup. In both the fourth and the sixth, Frazier led off — after Abreu had ended the previous inning during his 1-for-6 day — by popping out, and was followed by Cabrera and Brett Lawrie reaching base consecutively and starting a mini-rally. In both innings that was followed Garcia making an out (soft liner to center in the fourth, ugly strikeout in the sixth), Alex Avila reaching base by crafty, wisened means (dribbler away from the shift in the fourth, working a walk in the sixth), and the snakebitten Jackson getting a crack at being the hero with the bases loaded and two outs, only to see him fail to get the ball out of the infield.

5. The Sox have lived and died on elite-elite-elite starting pitching so far in 2016, needed to see a return to form from their youngest and rawest left-hander Saturday after the worst outing of his career on Monday. They got plenty.

Rodon breezed through the Texas batting order save for a strange struggle to retire Desmond or keep him in the ballpark. Rodon collected seven strikeouts and just one walk over six and two-thirds innings of two-run ball, and showed few signs of the control problems that plagued him Monday. After two hitters he had doubled his innings and strikeout count from his last outing, and didn’t walk anyone until Desmond earned a free pass and later scored the go-ahead run in the seventh.

6. Cabrera continues to be nuclear hot, belting his second home run of the season and collecting three more hits, and reaching base four more times, which is equal to the number of strikeouts he has this season. It sounds like he’s staying in the middle of the order for the foreseeable future, where his hot April will try to cover up that the Sox 3-4 hitters are both batting below .200.

7. Avila left the game after the sixth inning with tightness in his right hamstring, prompting Dioner Navarro to come in. The next man up from Charlotte should an injury persist is Kevan Smith, who is producing early but short on prospect shine.

8. Lawrie made a diving stop at second followed by a behind-the-back flip to Rollins in the third inning that will likely make a highlight reel or five, and had a pretty good snag of a hot grounder from Mitch Moreland in the 11th.

9. Desmond, owner of a .231 OBP coming into the day, reached base on the Sox four times and scored three runs.

10. The Matt Albers scoreless streak extended to 29 games after he wriggled out of the 11th inning, thanks in no small part to Elvis Andrus lining it back to the mound for a double play

Team Record: 12-6

Next Game is Sunday at 1:10 p.m. CT vs. Texas on CSN

Lead Photo Image Credit: Rick Scuteri // USA Today Sports Images

The conflagration snapped a 10-game quality start streak for 23 year-old left-hander, who has managed to mostly be very productive despite having so much work left to do to refine his awesome raw stuff. Will his troubles continues to crater or will he feature newly smoothed out mechanics and continue his ascent to the upper echelon of AL starting pitchers?

Facing him will be a Texas lineup that features four lefties for some reason.

Rodon features a devastating slider, so while Prince Fielder and Rougned Odor are obviously everyday guys, and rookie Nomar Mazara is just an awesome talent, but Mitch Moreland is a career .233/.291/.359 hitter against lefties.

Don’t expect Melky Cabrera‘s hot start to alter the top of the lineup much. Robin Ventura said before Saturday’s game that he likes having Cabrera’s switch-hitting bat in the middle of the lineup. As such, Jimmy Rollins will return to the No. 2 hole after a day off. He’s hitting .217/.275/.370 so far on the year, but looked happy about some new shoes he got before the game, so maybe a hot streak is afoot.

The ageless Colby Lewis (he’s 36, actually) takes the mound for Texas. Despite a myriad of arm injuries, career detours to Japan, and mostly mediocre results (career cFIP of 100 on the nose), he can never be counted out, and managed to spin a career-high 204.2 innings last year.

White Sox Lineup:

1. Adam Eaton – RF
2. Jimmy Rollins – SS
3. Jose Abreu – 1B
4. Todd Frazier – 3B
5. Melky Cabrera – LF
6. Brett Lawrie – 2B
7. Avisail Garcia – DH
8. Alex Avila – C
9. Austin Jackson – CF

SP – Carlos Rodon

Rangers Lineup:

1. Delino DeShields – CF
2. Nomar Mazara – RF
3. Adrian Beltre – 3B
4. Prince Fielder – DH
5. Ian Desmond – LF
6. Mitch Moreland – 1B
7. Elvis Andrus – SS
8. Rougned Odor – 2B
9. Bryan Holaday – C

SP – Colby Lewis

Saturday’s game is on CSN at 1:10pm CT.

Lead Image Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn // USA Today Sports Images

1. Friday, however, was a good night. Jose Quintana, getting friendly calls on the corner with his looping curve and popping his high fastball, cruised through his first six shutout innings like it was the most natural thing in the world. At the close of the sixth, he had retired 11 consecutive Rangers hitters and struck out four. He would need help to get out of the seventh, and we’ll get to that later, but he lowered his ERA to 1.82 on the night against the most prolific offense in the league coming in.

2. The ball wasn’t carrying in the cold Friday night, but the Sox still managed to manufacture a relative breakthrough against Rangers starter Martin Perez. Sox hitting got the leadoff man on in each of the first three innings and reaped the rewards of simply getting a batter to third base. Melky Cabrera scored in the second after a leadoff single when Texas catcher Bryan Holaday just completely lost track of a relatively typical pitch in the dirt, and Adam Eaton doubled to lead off the third, advanced on an Austin Jackson bunt, and scored on a Jose Abreu sacrifice fly to center.

3. While those outbursts were more functional than fashionable, a stirring two-out rally in the sixth broke the game open, started by Todd Frazier working the first of two walks on the night. A Cabrera double to left — his second hit of the night — put two runners in scoring position for Brett Lawrie, who took a 2-2, 95 mph fastball in on the hands from Perez and was able to fist it into left-center for a two-run double. Despite the lefty matchup he was started for getting chased from the game, Jerry Sands capped the outburst with an RBI single to left to stake Quintana to a 5-0 lead.

4. Quintana seemed entirely too comfortable with the rare lead, hanging a couple of beach balls up in the zone to Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre and losing his control and walking the slumping Ian Desmond. All of sudden he had a bases loaded, no outs situation, and worse yet, Mitch Moreland laced his next curve sharply to right. But only then did things turn a bit.

Eaton raced under the drive for a gorgeous running catch, fired to first with a throw that dragged Abreu just far enough toward second that it threw off Desmond’s calculation, and led him to overrun first base, then clumsily fail in two attempts to dodge Abreu’s tag while diving back to the bag. While Beltre started advancing from second, Fielder froze at third, and after Abreu recognized the looming traffic jam and threw home to block Fielder, Tyler Saladino directed traffic for a crisp rundown to cap the Sox first triple play since 2006.

Obviously the Rangers combined a lot of incompetence into 30 seconds to make this possible, but with the switch in sides from who is typically running their way out of innings and who is executing competent rundowns during Sox games, and something actually fortunate happening during a Quintana start, the raucous celebration seemed on note for how joyous and new this felt for an April White Sox game.

5. Most importantly, after a scoreless eighth, Matt Albers‘ scoreless streak is at 28 games.

Team Record: 11-6

Next game is Saturday at 1:10 p.m. CT vs. the Rangers on CSN

Lead Photo Image: Mike Dinovo // USA Today Sports Images