Rodon dazzles in debut with Triple-A Charlotte

The White Sox' best left-handed starting pitcher, Chris Sale, was back on the mound Sunday at U.S. Cellular Field.

No offense to Jose Quintana, but the Sox' second-best lefty starter was doing his thing for Class AAA Charlotte on Saturday night.

Carlos Rodon made his minor-league season debut and allowed 1 earned run on 2 hits in 5 innings against Norfolk. The No. 3 overall pick in last year's draft also had 9 strikeouts.

"My fastball command was real good," Rodon told the Charlotte Observer. "My slider wasn't at its best, but the changeup was a lot better. I don't know, I threw 14 changeups and 17 sliders, but those 14 changeups were better than most of those sliders."

Once he has a good feel for the change, look for Rodon to be in the White Sox' starting rotation.

"You get reports and stuff like that, but there's no timetable with him," Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "We know he's there and we'll get reports, but for me, I'm focusing on the 25 guys that are here."

Duke to the rescue:

David Robertson pitched a perfect ninth inning Sunday for the second straight game, inspiring even more confidence from the White Sox.

Equally important, Zach Duke is another newcomer who is thriving in the revamped bullpen. Duke worked out of a jam in his first appearance, at Kansas City on Wednesday, and he did the same Sunday.

Coming on to face the Twins in the eighth inning with a 3-1 lead, center fielder Adam Eaton made a bad read on a Brian Dozier liner that dropped in for a one-out single.

After Joe Mauer singled Dozier to third base, Torii Hunter grounded to first baseman Jose Abreu, who inexplicably threw the ball home but was way too late to get Dozier.

Duke got out of the jam by retiring Trevor Plouffe and Eduardo Escobar.

"You have to block that out and focus on the next pitch," Duke said. "We kept the lead and that's the main thing. My job is to make sure we are still winning whenever I come out."

Versatile Ventura:

Manager Robin Ventura had a feeling Chris Sale was going to be good Sunday because he caught him toward the end of spring training.

"There was one day, he was just over on the half-field throwing, so I ended up catching him for a little bit, as strange as that sounds," Ventura said. "Just the ball coming out of his hand, you could see the velocity, you could see there was something on it.

"I mean, this has all been about his foot and not his arm, so you're not necessarily worried about it's an elbow and every pitch you're on pins and needles.

"This is his ankle, and you had to be careful with his ankle and you didn't want him mechanically to do anything, but everything all spring, once he started throwing, it was coming out as good as it ever has."