When Chris Sale took the mound on Monday night against the Cleveland Indians, his assignment was a familiar one: He had to protect a three-run lead.

He's had that job before, albeit with a slight difference. This time, he had 27 outs remaining, not three.

Sale had a lot more work left than usual, but nobody can say it overwhelmed him. He threw 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball, and with the way the game played out, it perfectly illustrated why never giving Sale the opportunity to start would have been a big mistake.

Sale, Matt Thornton, Addison Reed and Hector Santiago all pitched with a three-run lead on Monday night. The first three were considered favorites for the closer job at one point in the recent past, and Santiago actually holds the title now.

With nobody used to closing and all leads being equal, endurance is the real variable. Ask the question, "Out of these four pitchers, which one could hold that lead the longest?" Sale would be undoubtedly the best bet, and so it's a no-doubt decision to push him into an expanded role. If Sale stands a reasonable chance of being trustworthy for six innings, limiting him to one would be a major waste of his talent.

After his successful debut, some skeptics have warmed up to the decision:

The decision to start Sale wasn't "wildly popular" originally, as he could have closed. But CWS certainly are happy now ~

— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) April 10, 2012

Given the first clause of that tweet, it leaves room to wonder what the reaction would have been if the Indians knocked Sale out in the third inning (I know what one would have looked like). Thankfully, Sale's strong performance and some convenient run margins make no further explanation necessary at this time.

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Making his first big-league start, Chris Sale was given a welcome basket by his teammates in the form of a three-run lead. Alejandro De Aza greeted Cleveland starter Josh Tomlin with a solo shot to lead off the game, and four batters later, A.J. Pierzynski one-upped De Aza with a two-out, two-run no-doubter of his own.

Sale never put the lead in jeopardy. Though he had some problems throwing first-pitch strikes, working from behind didn't seem to faze him. The Indians couldn't find a way to even bring the tying run to the plate after the second inning, which, not by coincidence, was the last inning Sale walked a batter.

For all the talk about his slider and changeup, his 95-mph high-and-away fastball was his best out pitch against an altered lineup that left the Indians underpowered. He retired 12 in a row at one point before an errant fastball nailed Shin-Soo Choo's hand. That led to the only Cleveland run, as Choo stole second (on Sale, not Pierzynski) and scored on Carlos Santana's RBI single.

Sale allowed only three hard-hit balls, and all came in the sixth or seventh innings. The latter frame started with a well-struck Shelley Duncan single, but Sale erased him by getting Jason Kipnis to ground into a 5-4-3 double play. That's how his night ended, as Robin Ventura pulled him exactly at 100 pitches.

Hector Santiago gave up a solo shot to Jose Lopez on his fourth straight misplaced fastball, but finished the ninth flyout-strikeout-strikeout to preserve the first victory by a White Sox starter this season.

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A brief look at an opponent we play this week (and all season).

Offense: Michael Brantley-CF, Asdrubal Cabrera-SS, Shin-Soo Choo-RF, Carlos Santana-C, Travis Hafner-DH, Shelley Duncan-LF, Casey Kotchman-1B, Jason Kipnis-2B, Jack Hannahan-3B. Bench: Jose Lopez-INF, Jason Donald-UTIL, Aaron Cunningham-OF, Lou Marson-C.

I'd like the thank Manny Acta for using the exact same batting order over the first three games. The Indians bench has only gotten eight plate appearances so far. Obviously that's going to change over our series with them, but until Grady Sizemore heals and subsequently reinjures himself, this is looking like the core lineup. Michael Brantley really shouldn't be a leadoff hitter. Sure, he's fast enough (46 SB in AAA in 2009) and he even plays a leadoffish position (albeit poorly). But he hasn't found a way to walk in more than 6.9% of his major league plate appearances and isn't a strong enough hitter to make up for that. We're looking at a hitter whose ceiling looks to be slightly under league average. And he's still the best return they received in the C.C. Sabathia trade. Asdrubal Cabrera had a monster breakout year last season. Somehow a guy five lbs heavier than me and my height went from only hitting six homeruns in a season to hitting 25. So how did he do it? No, not steroids. Well, maybe, but that's a lazy accusation and kind of crappy to say. I'd say hitting 7.3% more flyballs might have had something to do with it. His HR/FB% doubling from his prior career average didn't hurt the cause either. Remember that magical year Joe Mauer hit 28 homeruns? That's what this smells like. Cabrera is terrible defensively. Expect something like 12-14 homeruns with 15-20 steals.

Shin-Soo Choo, also known in some parts as Bill Melton's favorite Japanese player (please never let that man announce another baseball game), never really bounced back after his DUI last season. And then he broke his thumb. But if you trust his uncited Wikipedia page, 2012 has been going great for him "Choo got tattoos on his right arm. Then he lost 20 pounds". Tattoos, the new miracle weight loss drug! Choo is a solid defender in right and should bounce back at the plate this year. He is entering his decline phase, but a .360 wOBA with a near 20-20 season is perfectly within the realm of possible. I'm happy it was Carlos Santana's birthday yesterday, because he apparently loves to mash on it. The top catcher in the AL is only 26 years old and already learning to handle first base to keep his knees from grinding into phosphorous rich bone meal. The switch-hitter is scary strong (I'm thinking 30 homeruns) and has a batting eye well beyond his years (15.9% career BB%). Fast runners should be able to steal on him, as he's only around league average at dispatching would be thieves. I like to think he is the universe balancing out bad trades involving the Indians. Some deity up there (my favorite still being Odin) decided that the Indians would get fleeced by Milwaukee for their best starting pitcher, but would manage to trick Ned Colletti into desiring Casey Blake.

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Assuming A.J. Pierzynski was responsible for what Nate Jones threw to Josh Hamilton for his first big-league strikeout, that was inspired pitch-calling. It's impressive when a young pitcher can double up with changeups to a MVP-caliber hitter, but Jones doubled up on Hamilton three times over one at-bat, and Hamilton never looked ready for it.

I guess it might be easier to not give in when a guy like Hamilton is at the plate with first (and second) base open, but that's not an orthodox series to execute, so big ups to Jones and Pierzynski for getting it done.

Jones' successful debut was part of 7 1/3 scoreless innings thrown by the White Sox bullpen over the weekend. I expect "wobbly" to be a suitable adjective as Jones builds a larger sample size, but if he can contribute the occasional mid-leverage inning, it adds considerable depth to the bullpen from the right side. Maybe Zach Stewart could also handle that responsibility, but I haven't seen much in the way of swing-and-miss stuff from Stewart, whether judging him from September or the spring.

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The first two games of this series were tight contests, but the White Sox couldn't escape Arlington without the Texas Rangers showing their might.

Gavin Floyd gave up just five hits over 5 2/3 innings, but only two stayed in the park. David Murphy, Adrian Beltre, and, most impressively, Josh Hamilton all took Floyd deep on non-ideal pitches. In the process, the Rangers showed why their lineup is a cut above above. It's really hard for opposing pitchers to get away with mistakes.

The White Sox, on the other hand, weren't nearly as threatening. They matched the Rangers with six hits, but they couldn't string them together off Matt Harrison, who kept them off-balance with off-speed pitches in fastball counts. The Sox went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

An ugly sequence in the fourth inning cost the Sox their best chance at changing the course of the game. Gordon Beckham led off with a "double" (he took second on a bobble by Murphy in left), and moved to third on Adam Dunn's groundout. Paul Konerko, who had delivered two clutch hits on Saturday, could only hit a weak chopper back towards the mound. Beckham compounded the problem by breaking for home, and he was tagged out in a rundown.

The Sox weren't able to truly mount another threat, as Texas clobbered their way to a safe lead. Hamilton kept the shutout intact with an impressive diving catch in left center to end the seventh, taking an RBI double away from Alejandro De Aza.

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During spring training and now opening weekend, the White Sox have shown an increased aggressiveness in testing arms to home plate. On Friday, third base coach Joe McEwing waved home Alex Rios on a softly hit ball to left field, scoring him from first base. Earlier in the week in the first exhibition game against Houston, Alejandro de Aza hit a grounder to the left of Astros second baseman Jose Altuve. Dayan Viciedo was on second and he ran hard to third base. McEwing saw that Altuve dove for the ball on the outfield grass but could not corral it. McEwing never put up the stop sign and the Tank never slowed down, scoring easily without a throw.

Of course it hasn't all been sunshine as, for example, Brent Morel was easily thrown out at the plate on March 15 against the Inidans after a good relay from Ryan Spilborghs to Jason Kipnis and on to the waiting Carlos Santana.

We're obviously looking at a small sample. But what we appear to be seeing is an aggressive team baserunning approach where nothing is assumed until McEwing puts up a stop sign. And McEwing doesn't seem too inclined to put up the stop sign.

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It was said during spring training that Robin Ventura would bring a different personality to the White Sox manager's seat, but the philosophy might not differ all that much.

Sure enough, the early comparisons to Ozzie Guillen are holding up. For instance, Ventura hasn't pissed off an entire community by praising a dictator, but his game strategy does look familiar in a few different facets.

The running game

Much to our chagrin, Ventura isn't discouraged by Alejandro De Aza's misadventures on the basepaths during the spring and first two games.

"I want him to be aggressive," Ventura said Saturday night before De Aza stole second in the first inning against the Rangers. "I want him to feel there are no reins on him. I want him to be able to feel confident about trying to get a big jump. He's going to get thrown out. We'll have guys who probably will get thrown out, but it won't stop us from running."

So, the next best hope is that De Aza develops a well-honed sense of guilt whenever he costs the Sox a baserunner in front of their best hitters. Or maybe he'll become more selective with catchers. As we saw, running on Mike Napoli is preferable to running on Yorvit Torrealba.

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Robin Ventura earned his first victory as manager thanks to a couple of unlikely sources.

In the top of the ninth, the much-maligned Alex Rios jumped on a 1-2 Joe Nathan fastball and sent it over the center field fence to give the Sox a 4-3 lead. In the bottom of the inning, Ventura called on Hector Santiago to close it out.

Santiago passed the first test by picking up first career save, but he owes Alexei Ramirez a beer. Had Ramirez not made a brilliant sliding, over-the-shoulder catch in shallow center to start the inning, who knows what the end of the game would have looked like. The web gem gave Santiago a much easier path to the 27th out, and after an Ian Kinsler groundout and an Elvis Andrus lineout to right, the White Sox had their first victory of the season.

Santiago's successful job closed out three scoreless innings by the White Sox bullpen -- Will Ohman and Addison Reed worked a 1-2-3 seventh, and Matt Thornton pitched around two soft singles, an HBP and a 3-0 count with the bases loaded to get through the eighth. They went head-to-head against the best of the Texas bulpen (Alexi Ogando, Mike Adams and Nathan) and came out on top.

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The White Sox opened up the season with a hard fought 3-2 defeat yesterday in Arlington. John Danks took the ball for the Sox and threw a nice game. Ian Kinsler burned him a couple of times which led to two runs. Addison Reed and Matt Thornton threw well out of the bullpen as the Sox limited the powerful Rangers lineup to 3 runs.

Of course, that wasn't good enough. The Sox outhit the Rangers 8-6, but couldn't a a big one as they went 0-7 with RISP. Brent Morel wins the goat of the game award as he went 0-4 with the golden sombrero, an error, a pop up he could have had near the camera well and he booted a sure double play ball, having to settle for only getting the out at first. The missed opportunity ended up costing the Sox the game winning run. It really couldn't have been a worse day for Morel.

On the bright side, the Sox last opened their season in Texas in 2000. They weren't highly regarded that year either and got beat 10-4. That team ended up being pretty darn good as they went on to win the AL Central divison. Maybe history can repeat itself.

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