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Sox’ Rios finally gets a hit

With his single in the first inning against the Royals on Tuesday night, center fielder Alex Rios no longer is the only White Sox regular without a hit.

Rios had a rough opening series at Cleveland, going 0-for-12 with 5 strikeouts.

But Rios, who declared the Sox as the “team to beat” in the AL Central during spring training, did scald two balls against the Indians on Saturday and had nothing to show for it.

With American League player of the week Carlos Quentin batting sixth in the White Sox’ lineup — one slot behind Rios — there already has been some early talk about a switch.

Well aware there are 158 games left to play, Sox manager Ozzie Guillen knows it’s way too early to start tinkering with his hitters.

“I don’t see why to change the lineup or put more pressure on the players,” Guillen told reporters before the White Sox opened a two-game series at Kansas City. “I think Rios is swinging the bat good.

“The first game he was struggling, but after that pretty good. When you change the lineup, then you start to mess it up. But I think everyone is in the right place.”

That includes Adam Dunn, the No. 3 hitter. During the off-season, Guillen was seriously thinking about batting Rios third, followed by Dunn and Paul Konerko.

Bad Ohman:

Monday’s day off didn’t do much to squelch all of the talk about struggling new relief pitcher Will Ohman, who allowed 6 earned runs on 5 hits (2 home runs) over 2 innings in 2 appearances at Cleveland.

According to reporters, Ohman got the full Ozzie treatment before Tuesday’s game against K.C.

“He’s got to get his head out of his (bleep),” Guillen said. “I don’t want to punish the kid. He had what, two bad games? He knows that; we all know that. I’m not going to change anything.”

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