Sox hope Putz's returns can spark late surge

DETROIT - Instead of shuffling relief pitchers in and out of different roles, the White Sox are going to finally have a full deck Thursday when J.J. Putz (sore right knee) comes off the disabled list.

When the Sox were finishing off the first half of the season with 25 wins in 30 games, Bobby Jenks was entrenched as the closer, Matt Thornton and J.J. Putz were alternating in the setup role and Sergio Santos was handling the sixth inning.

Jenks (back), Thornton (elbow) and Putz have all had their health issues since the all-star break and it's been costly for the White Sox.

Now that they are all back - Thornton came off the disabled list Friday - the Sox can only hope it's not too late to chase down the first-place Twins.

With the starting rotation starting to run out of gas, at least the Sox' back end of the bullpen appears to be in good shape heading down the stretch.

"When we were rolling, we had 6, 7, 8 and 9 (innings) covered," White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper said. "Getting back to that would be the perfect scenario. We'd like to do that again if we could. But before we do that, we can't just pencil a guy like Putzie in. We have to get him untracked a little bit with one or two outings.

"And we've got a couple new characters in there."

The Sox did add Carlos Pena, Lucas Harrell and Gregory Infante from Class AAA Charlotte to beef up the bullpen, but rookie Chris Sale has pitched his way into a major role.

While he is ultimately likely to land in the White Sox' starting rotation, Sale has been impressive as a reliever, allowing just 1 earned run in 132/3 innings while striking out 19.

Cooper was asked if Sale reminds him of anyone.

"A little bit of Randy Johnson, just because of his lower angle," Cooper said. "I'm not talking fastball, slider, but there are some similarities there. I'm talking more his throwing angle.

"I'm not saying this guy is Randy Johnson by any means, but that's the name that comes to mind because of his throwing angle, where he's coming from and how nasty he can be on hitters, especially lefties."