Huge win for Sox, no matter how early

Let’s not get too carried away with Monday night’s 2-0 win over New York at Yankee Stadium.

On the other hand, there is no denying it was huge for the White Sox.

With general manager Kenny Williams on hand to help douse the multiple fires sparked by an 8-14 start, the Sox finally took the heat off themselves by playing a solid game of baseball.

To be sure, the offense still isn’t scaring anybody, and 2 runs on 5 hits won’t get the job done on most days.

But on Monday, fill-in starter Phil Humber stepped up and helped the White Sox end the worst slide they are going to have this season.

They couldn’t possibly have been any more awful while losing 10 of 11 and being shut out in back-to-back losses at Detroit before moving on to New York.

With the offense doing nothing for such a long stretch, there was some speculation that Williams headed to New York to fire hitting coach Greg Walker.

Slow start aside, the thought never crossed the GM’s mind.

“The coaching staff is not throwing the baseball, not hitting the baseball, they’re doing what they’ve always done,” Williams told reporters. “The first 10 games of the season people talked about how well our offense was performing. We were hitting off the charts. When it turned around, we have to stand up and take the heat.

“(Walker) is used to taking the heat and he’s been consistent over the years the way teams have rebounded offensively.”

Been hearing plenty of calls for Walker’s job over the past week or so, but the White Sox’ pitching hasn’t been much better.

Similar to past seasons, I think it’s interesting how Walker also seems to take criticism when the Sox aren’t hitting while pitching coach Don Cooper typically comes away unscathed.

That’s not a shot at Cooper or a defense of Walker. They are both good guys, they put the work in and they’re good coaches. And as Williams said, they aren’t going anywhere.

As for the Sox, there is nowhere to go but up.

That’s why it was so important to beat a good Yankees team on their home turf in the first of a four-game set.

Humber’s outstanding effort — the 28-year-old starter had a no-hitter going until Alex Rodriguez drove a clean single up the middle with one out in the seventh inning — might have sent a message the White Sox can actually compete when they’re not scoring runs.

The other plus from the win over New York was Sergio Santos flourishing in his first shot at closing.

Santos got 4 outs while picking up his first save of the season. He also allowed 2 hits, but showed he has the makeup needed to succeed in crunch time.