The M&M boys were the only Twins to do any damage tonight while the White Sox and strong winds made short work of the Minnesota pitching staff.

The Sox started the salvo when A.J. Pierzynski crushed a foul ball in the second inning. The howling winds pushed it fair and he had his eighth homer and 29th RBI of the season.

Minnesota answered with a run in the third, but the White Sox came right back and put 'a big crooked number on the board' pushing three runs across on an error by Alexi Casilla, singles from Gordon Beckham and Paul Konerko, and a double by Rios. Runs were scored in seven of the nine innings tonight -- the third was the only one they didn't arrive via the home run.

Philip Humber ran into trouble in the fifth inning. Denard Span doubled, reached third on a sacrifice, then scored on a wild pitch. Joe Mauer homered. Josh Willingham walked. Justin Morneau doubled and that was it for our starter. He left the game with 4 1/3 innings complete, walking three and allowing six hits (one homer) while striking out four..

Nate Jones came in and promptly surrendered a base hit to Dozier, which cashed in two more runs on Humber's tab. He settled down after that for 1 2/3 scoreless innings and picked up the win when the Sox went off for six runs in the sixth to put this one out of reach.

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John Danks will not be making his scheduled start on Friday versus the Indians. Instead, Jose Quintana will be recalled to start in his place. Danks will be going on the disabled list with "soreness" in his left shoulder.

Danks has not pitched well this season. In 9 GS, he's 3-4 with a bloated 5.70 ERA that's the result of too many hits, too many walks, too many home runs and too few strikeouts.

Quintana, who was promoted to Charlotte earlier today, made a brief appearance in a White Sox uniform earlier this month as the "26th man" called up for the split doubleheader against Cleveland. He acquitted himself well, entering the first game in the 3rd inning for a shelled Phillip Humber and then pitched 5.2 scoreless innings.

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If someone asked you back in February how the three-four punch of Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko would rank among similar tandems throughout the American League, you could be forgiven for thinking somewhere in the middle of the pack. After all, Dunn was coming off the worst season ever and eventually even automatons like Konerko slow down or cease to function at such a high rate. Surely they couldn't stack up with pairings from surefire offensive juggernauts like the Los Angeles Angels, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Detroit Tigers!

Funny thing about that though, it's May 24th and Adam Dunn would be a viable MVP candidate if not for the fact that the man hitting behind him is somehow having an even better season. So where do they actually stand in comparison to their opposing lineup brethren?

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If baseball didn't learn from Carl Pavano back in 2010, it should certainly learn from Jeff Samardzija this season: Hitting Paul Konerko in the face only angers him.

In his second game back from a black eye, Konerko went 3-for-4 with a homer and three runs scored, which extended his hitting streak to nine games. Over that period, he's 17-for-30, with a glorious line of .567/.639/.900, which has elevated his status across the American League leaderboard:

• BA: .381 (1st)
• OBP: .462 (1st)
• SLG: .633 (2nd)
• OPS: 1.094 (2nd)

But his home run against Alex Burnett -- the only swing Konerko liked, by the way -- is especially cool, because it came on an 0-2 count. And that leads us to some even more incredible numbers.

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After ttheir worst loss of the year, some White Sox said they were emotionally drained from Kevin Hickey's funeral.

Tonight provided more evidence for that case. Given a day to shake off the sorrow, the Sox simply out-talented the Twins. They didn't play their best game -- they grounded into way too many double plays -- but they still won handily.

And Chris Sale was the most talented guy on the field. He threw seven beautiful innings, allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out six. He didn't waste too many pitches (97 total), even with a small strike zone, because he had all three pitches working. As a result, the Twins could only put pressure on him one time all night.

Actually, Gordon Beckham put pressure on Sale first. He mishandled a spin-laden grounder by Darin Mastroianni to allow the leadoff hitter to reach. Sale followed by walking Joe Mauer (tight strike zone), but he came back by getting Josh Willingham to ground into a double play. With his feet back under him, he struck out Justin Morneau to end the threat.

It definitely helps when two of the Twins' 4-5-6 combo is left-handed. Mauer hung in there OK against Sale, but Morneau couldn't figure him out. He chased pitches high and wide for two strikeouts, and bounced out to first in his third chance.

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After reading even more vitriolic comments from Twins fans in regards to new White Sox 3B/INF Orlando Hudson, I came to that exact realization. This must be what other fan bases see when they look at our continued displeasure and disdain for Nick Swisher. And I now totally understand it.

It seemed weird to me to suddenly stumble onto so many fans proclaiming that Hudson was a clubhouse cancer and an all-around unlikeable guy after years of hearing the opposite, but when I look back on how Swisher and Orlando Cabrera were handled by the clubhouse and Chicago media it all makes more sense.

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Well that was better, no? It's not as if Chris Sale threw all that much harder against the Angels than in previous starts. But it did seem to be something of a difference maker nonetheless. And, yeah, the Angels are shuffling a bit at the moment, but that's a talented squad with real hitters that will eventually get their act together. Outside of Pujols' bomb, Sale kept them in their rut while looking far more like the pitcher we hope he can be.

Perhaps most importantly, he seemed to have a much clearer idea not only of what to do with his fastball but on top of that managed to actually do it. Since the season began, he's shown a substantial variance in the velocity of his fastball, dropping all the way to 88 mph at times and peaking at 95 or so. It looked as though he was trying to throw two separate pitches, but managed to succeed only sometimes. Often, he'd go with his best fastball early only to putter out as he got deeper into games.

Against the Angels, he seemed more judicious. Indeed, his out pitch in this particular outing was the harder fastball. In two strike counts, Sale brought the gas and the end result was a whiff rate in the vicinity of 30% for all fastballs thrown. This is all the more impressive given who the Angels sent to the plate. As mentioned, I think there's plenty of talent on that team. But they also started a lineup consisting entirely of hitters who had the platoon advantage against Sale. That his best fastball would be so effective against them is a feather in his cap.

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