White Sox parlay Adam Dunn's bat, Gavin Floyd's arm into win

Some good early work by the revitalized Adam Dunn and starting pitcher Gavin Floyd paid off in the long run for the White Sox in Friday night's 5-0 win over the Royals at U.S. Cellular Field.

Dunn homered off Kansas City starter Felipe Paulino in the first inning, and Floyd wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam with one out in the second, setting up the Sox' third straight win.

Dunn also doubled and walked twice while raising his batting average to .257. He's hit 6 home runs in his last 10 games.

"I'm definitely not where I want to be," Dunn said after matching last season's home run total (11).

"There are some good things and some bad things. But this is kind of the start to the season I expected."

Dunn ended his consecutive games with a strikeout streak at 36, the longest in baseball in 44 years.

"That's good," Dunn said.

Floyd has been very good lately, and the trend continued Friday.

After the Royals loaded the bases in the second inning with a single and 2 walks, they failed to score. Alcides Escobar and Humberto Quintero each grounded back to Floyd to end the threat.

"Early on, that's the last thing you want to do," Floyd said of the second inning. "You have to focus on the simple things and know if you make your pitch, hopefully you'll get guys out."

Over his last 4 starts, Floyd has a 1.26 ERA.

"He has great command, he's getting ahead and using all his pitches," said White Sox manager Robin Ventura. "He's not predictable. He can throw anything in any count. Guys can't sit on pitches."

Closing time:

Now that the Chris Sale as closer experiment is over, who is going to the White Sox' save-ior?

"Whoever ends up in the ninth inning," manager Robin Ventura cracked.

"We're back to that."

Ventura did follow with a more serious answer - it's likely to be a committee.

"It could be," Ventura said. "Addy (Addison Reed) looked great at it. With Jesse (Crain) being on the DL, it kind of moves people around a little bit. We've go the opportunity to use Matt (Thornton), Addison and Hector (Santiago) in that role."

Crain, on the disabled list with a strained left oblique, made his first rehab appearance with Class AAA Charlotte on Friday night and pitched 1 scoreless inning.

Morel sits again:

Third baseman Brent Morel was scratched from Wednesday's game at Cleveland with a bulging disc in his lower back, and Thursday's day off did not help the condition.

Morel sat out Friday against the Royals, but he expects to play today.

"With something like this, it's probably best to give it a couple days," Morel said.

An 0-for-10 hitless streak has dropped Morel's batting average to .172, and you have to wonder how much the back has been bothering him at the plate.

Morel did say he's had some "off-and-on" back pain since spring training.

"We're just kind of monitoring," manager Robin Ventura said. "It's not enough to DL him."