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White Sox continue to roll, rout Rangers 19-2

Is it time to start looking at the White Sox as a legitimate postseason contender?

Since 1995, 68 percent of the teams leading their division on July 1 have gone on to the playoffs.

The Sox (43-37) still are on top of the AL Central, and they took another day off the calendar Tuesday while hammering the Rangers 19-2.

At 50-31, Texas has the best record in major-league baseball.

General manager Kenny Williams was feeling pretty good about his team before the White Sox won a game by 17 runs for the first time since July 5, 1987.

Williams was not thinking about possible rotation combinations for the playoffs.

“Don’t get too far head of yourself,” the GM said. “What we need to focus on on a continuous basis is winning the series, each and every series. It will all take care of itself at the end if we just do that and not take anything for granted.

“We are still, I understand, we’re in first place, but we’re a first-place team that has nine rookies. Last I counted. I stopped counting right around seven or so. Well, let’s not tell anyone or tell them. We have so many and maybe no one will notice.

“I think it’s a tribute to the scouting department and our player-development department No. 1. Some of the guys that we’ve brought up we’ve drafted, and some of them we’ve gotten whether it be off the waiver wire or through trade, guys have shown a tremendous amount of growth and a tremendous amount of character. Knock on wood, just keep our focus, don’t get too far ahead of ourselves.”

Staying in the present, it was an impressive 21-hit showing by the White Sox’ offense, including home runs by Kevin Youkilis, Adam Dunn and Alex Rios in the first inning off Texas starter Roy Oswalt and a 3-run shot by A.J. Pierzynski in the fifth.

That was way more than enough run support for Chris Sale (10-2), who had another monster outing in his final start before the all-star break.

“It was like an explosion went off,” Sale said after pitching 7 scoreless innings and leaving to raucous cheers from a nice crowd of 30,183 at U.S. Cellular Field.

“It was fun to watch. I’d like to sit here and point out who did what, but through the lineup up and down, everyone swung the bat outstanding.

“To get that kind of run support, I’ve said it before, it kind of calms you down and you just go about your business and everything will take care of itself.”

Youkilis set the tone with a 2-run homer to open the scoring.

“It was a good way to start,” manager Robin Ventura said. “Everybody throughout the lineup was able to swing it tonight, and Chris was great. You come to expect that.”

Williams landed Youkilis in a June 24 trade from the Boston Red Sox, and the gritty veteran immediate plugged a gaping hole. Are there any more moves on the horizon before the July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline, especially with so many rookies on the 25-man roster?

“I guess I’ve always tried to do this job simply by operating under the premise that there’s always one more move to make, and you can’t ever say that there’s not,” Williams said. “I don’t care what time of the year it is, so why should now be any different?”

sgregor@dailyherald.com

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