WHITE SOX HEADLINES OF APRIL 19, 2018 “Wednesday's best: Twins duo comes up big”… William Boor, MLB.com “Sox pitchers managing control, high walk counts”… Do-Hyoung Park, MLB.com “Top prospect Jimenez to rejoin Double-A”… Do-Hyoung Park, MLB.com “Moncada's 1st career slam highlights big effort”…. Do-Hyoung Park , MLB.com “Despite offense's heavy lifting, White Sox fall”… Do-Hyoung Park , MLB.com “Daily White Sox prospects update: Luis Alexander Basabe homered again and his slugging percentage is ridiculous”… Vinnie Duber, NBC Sports Chicago “Eloy's comin' ... to Birmingham: White Sox announce top prospect to join Double-A team Thursday”… Vinnie Duber, NBC Sports Chicago “Some crazy stats from the White Sox-Athletics 14-inning game”… Paul Roumeliotis, NBC Sports Chicago “White Sox lose to A's in 14-inning game that lasted 5 hours, 48 minutes — the Sox's longest since 2006”…John Hickey, Chicago Tribune “White Sox rotation stumbling in early going of season”… John Hickey, Chicago Tribune “Hey Carson Fulmer: Your White Sox career shouldn't resemble the Guaranteed Rate logo”… Steve Rosenbloom, Chicago Tribune “White Sox manager Rick Renteria — on the defensive — could use ‘pick-up’ himself”… Steve Greenberg, Chicago Sun Times “By the Numbers: No talking to needed this time. Ricky's boys 'showed a lot of balls' in marathon loss”…James Fegan, The Athletic “Eloy Jiménez returns and the White Sox rebuild is fun again”… James Fegan, The Athletic Wednesday's best: Twins duo comes up big By William Boor / MLB.com/ April 18, 2018 When things are going well offensively, more at-bats are certainly welcomed. That being the case, Wednesday's doubleheader came at a good time for Nick Gordon and LaMonte Wade as the duo helped lead Double-A Chattanooga to a pair of wins over Jacksonville. Gordon (No. 81 overall, Twins' No. 4) and Wade (Twins' No. 13) combined to go 7-for-12 (.583) with two homers and four RBIs over the two games. Gordon, who went 2-for-4 and 2-for-3, has been swinging a particuarily hot bat lately. The 22-year-old is in the midst of a five-game hitting streak and has two or more hits in five of his past seven games. Gordon also has a homer in two of his past three contests, including Game 2 of the doubleheader. Wade, who went deep in Game 1 and finished 2-for-3 and 1-for-2, is hitting .300 through 12 games this season and has multiple hits in three of his past five games. Other top prospect performances from Wednesday's action: • No. 3 overall prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Blue Jays' No. 1) bounced back from Tuesday's 0-for-5 effort with a 2-for-2 day at the plate. Guerrero singled in the first inning, drove in a run via a sacrifice fly in the third, was hit by a pitch in the sixth and capped his day with a double in the seventh. • No. 33 overall prospect Alex Verdugo (Dodgers' No. 2) is on an absolute tear with Triple-A Oklahoma City. After going 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs against Round Rock, the 21-year-old outfielder is hitting .643 (9-for-14) with three homers and nine RBIs over his past five games. • No. 57 overall prospect Jesus Sanchez (Rays' No. 4) put together his fourth straight multi-hit game and extended his hitting streak to six for Class A Advanced Charlotte. Sanchez, who is batting .370 through 12 games, went 4-for-5 with a homer -- his third in the past four games. • No. 97 overall prospect Austin Riley (Braves' No. 8) pushed his average to .370 with his third straight multi-hit performance. Riley went 3-for-4 with a pair of triples and has nine extra-base hits in 13 games for Double-A Mississippi. • No. 99 overall prospect Blake Rutherford (White Sox No. 7) and Micker Adolfo (White Sox No. 10) combined for six hits as Class A Advanced Winston-Salem cruised past Down East. Rutherford, who has hits in five straight, went 3-for-5 with three doubles, while Adolfo went 3-for-6 with two RBIs. • Dodgers' No. 15 prospect Connor Wong hit his sixth homer of the season and turned in another two-hit game for Class A Advanced Rancho Cucamonga. Wong, who finished 2-for-4, has multiple hits in four of his past five games and has raised his average from .250 to .364 in that span. • Giants' No. 29 prospect Jordan Johnson extended his scoreless streak to 13 innings as he cruised through seven frames for Double-A Richmond. The right-hander, who picked up his second win of the season, threw 53 of his 76 pitches for strikes, gave up six hits and struck out five. Johnson also didn't issue a walk and has walked just one batter over his past two starts after giving out five free passes in his first outing. • Mets prospects David Peterson (No. 2) and Quinn Brodey (No. 28) -- both members of the 2017 Draft class -- led Class A Columbia to a win over Greenville. Peterson, making his season debut, gave up one run on four hits over six innings, while Brodey extended his hitting streak to seven games with his first career two-homer effort. Brodey, who hit three homers in 63 games last season, went deep in both the eighth and ninth innings, finishing 2-for-4 with three RBIs. • Rangers prospects Pedro Gonzalez (No. 10) and Anderson Tejeda (No. 12) each homered as part of multi-hit efforts for Class A Hickory and Class A Advanced Down East, respectively. Gonzalez hit his second homer of the season, a two-run blast, in the fifth to highlight a 2-for-3, two-RBI day. Tejeda, who also went 2-for-3, hit a three-run homer off of Dylan Cease (No. 61 overall, White Sox No. 5). • Rays No. 28 prospect Resly Linares was nearly perfect in his second start for Class A Bowling Green. The 20-year-old lefty gave up seven runs in 3 2/3 innings in his first outing of the season, but this time around he threw 52 of his 85 pitches for strikes, struck out seven and allowed just two baserunners -- via a hit batter and an error -- over seven scoreless frames. • Yankees prospects Thairo Estrada (No. 10) and Trevor Stephan (No. 15) did their part as Class A Advanced Tampa routed Daytona, 12-0. Estrada, who was making his season debut after recovering from a gunshot wound sustained in the offseason, wasted no time getting back into the swing of things. The 22-year-old doubled in his first at-bat on his way to a 3-for-5 game. Stephan strung together six zeros for the second straight start, lowering his ERA to 1.13. The right-hander walked two, gave up a pair of hits and struck out eight, bringing his season total to 22 punchouts through 16 innings. Sox pitchers managing control, high walk counts By Do-Hyoung Park /MLB.com / April 18, 2018 OAKLAND -- Chicago's young starting rotation is still a work in progress, but there have been some promising hints of consistency from the White Sox starters in the early going. The Sox have gotten at least five innings from their starter in 11 of their 14 games, and in nine of those outings, their starter yielded three or fewer earned runs. With that said, and small sample sizes notwithstanding, the next step for this rotation looks to be cutting down on walks -- Sox starters lead the American League with 43 free passes -- and working deeper into ballgames. "We've done a really good job of minimizing the damage with our walks, no doubt, but at the end of the day, we definitely need to minimize our walks and control that a little bit and focus on staying more aggressive," right-hander James Shields said. The Sox particularly struggled with control in their last trip through the rotation. Shields and Lucas Giolito issued five walks apiece in their last starts, while Reynaldo Lopez issued four walks on Monday despite striking out 10. Wednesday's starter, Carson Fulmer, also walked six in his previous outing. Manager Rick Renteria believes that the early control issues are both mechanical and mental to a certain extent. For instance, Renteria and the Sox pitching coaches have sometimes noted poor angles to the plate in their pitchers' deliveries when reviewing film. But Renteria also thinks that part of the problem stems from a lack of trust in throwing certain pitches for strikes, which he believes will improve as his starters gain experience and confidence throughout the season. "There's a lot of discovery going on, and that will continue," Renteria said. "That's kind of never-ending." That hasn't necessarily just applied to the younger starters, either. After a three-inning start Tuesday in which he allowed eight earned runs, veteran right-hander Miguel Gonzalez noted that he didn't have a good feel for his fastball and had to rely more on his offspeed pitches as a result. Factors such as cold weather and an inconsistent schedule marred by weather-related cancellations certainly haven't helped, either, so the Sox, as they continue to make adjustments and seek consistency as a team, aren't yet too worried about the trend. "We don't really put too much emphasis on the first couple of starts of the season," Shields said.