CHICAGO -- About the only pitch that Chris Sale wouldnt make Monday night was his case for the American Leagues Cy Young Award. Then again, if he keeps pitching like he has so far this season, he wont have to say much. Sale pitched seven effective innings in his first outing since the All-Star break and Adam Dunn had two RBIs and scored a run to lead the Chicago White Sox to a 3-1 victory over the slumping Kansas City Royals on Monday night. Sale (9-1) wasnt at his best, allowing seven hits and a walk in seven innings, but he worked out of jams in the fourth and sixth innings. He struck out eight and now has allowed three runs or less in 14 of his 15 starts this season. Those certainly appear to be Cy Young-worthy numbers, right? "Like Ive always said, I dont pay too much attention to that," Sale said. "I have a job to do and I have to focus on doing that and playing games. Were right in the hunt right now, so these are the dog days and you have to bear down now. Nows not the time to be thinking about yourself or some trophy or whatever." Chicago manager Robin Ventura, though, didnt hesitate to respond when asked if Sale was a legitimate candidate for the award despite missing a month earlier in the season. "Oh, yeah, absolutely," Ventura said. "Theres no reason why he shouldnt be in the discussion. I dont care if he missed a month or not. Hes good." Dunn went 1-for-2 with a pair of walks as the White Sox for the third time in four games since the break. Danny Valencia went 1-for-2 with a RBI for Kansas City, which has dropped four straight and seven of eight. The Royals had a team meeting before the game, but couldnt turn around their fortunes as they dropped two games below .500 (48-50). Royals starter Jeremy Guthrie (5-9) gave up three runs on five hits in six innings to get the loss. He had been 4-0 against the White Sox with the Royals before Monday. "I thought Guthrie threw the ball all right," Kansas City manager Ned Yost said. "The first inning they had some well-placed groundballs. He was a little off command-wise in the first inning. Ended up hitting two guys by mistake but still kind of limited the damage there." The White Sox took a 2-0 lead in the first inning as the first four batters reached base and then Dunn singled up the middle against the shift -- essentially hitting the ball to the normal shortstop position -- to score both Adam Eaton and Alexei Ramirez. The Royals trimmed the lead in half in the fourth. Alex Gordon singled with one out, stole second and then scored on a two-out single by Valencia. The next batter, Alcides Escobar, doubled down the left-field line, but Valencia was nailed at the plate as left-fielder Alejandro De Aza and Ramirez got the ball to catcher Tyler Flowers for the putout to end the inning. "Thats huge," Sale said of the play at the plate. "Thats a game-changer, a game saver, just gives us momentum. It was awesome." The White Sox regained the two-run edge in the sixth as Dunn scored on a sacrifice fly by Gordon Beckham to make it 3-1. That was plenty of a cushion for Sale, who has allowed a total of three runs in 23 ? innings in his last three starts. Ronald Belisario pitched and eighth and Jake Petricka worked the ninth for his fourth save. "I think Im just trying to get better day in and day out," Sale said. NOTES: Royals 1B Eric Hosmer was scratched about an hour before game time with a right hand contusion. He was hit on the hand with a pitch by Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester in Sundays game at Fenway Park. . White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper is suffering from vertigo and missed a second straight game on Monday. Bullpen coach Bobby Thigpen took his place. ... K.C.s Salvador Perez was back in the lineup after sitting out Sunday with a groin strain. He originally was going to catch but switched to DH when Hosmer was scratched. "He feels much better," manager Ned Yost said. "Hes not a speed demon to begin with. Its still probably going to affect him a little bit running, but he can catch and swing and do everything else." ... Abreu doubled in the seventh to extend his hitting streak to 12 games. ... LHP Bruce Chen (1-2) takes on Scott Carroll (4-5) in the second game of the series. Cheap Rangers Jerseys Authentic . Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports that the Raptors have traded forward Steve Novak along with a second-round pick to the Utah Jazz in exchange for guard Diante Garrett - who will then be waived. Cheap Rangers Jerseys China .com) - The disappointing Ottawa Senators hope to record consecutive wins for the first time since early November, as they visit the Boston Bruins on Friday for the opener of a home-and-home series. http://www.cheapnewyorkrangersjerseys.com/ . Theres little time for rest, too. The Flyers and Rangers play again Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. Simmonds scored in the first period and twice more in the second for his first career post-season hat trick. Mason survived a busy first period and stopping 31 straight shots until Carl Hagelin scored late in the third. Cheap Adidas Rangers Jerseys .That means, of course, that John Wall beat the Spurs for the first time ever — within weeks of his first wins in head-to-head games against nemeses Chris Paul and Derrick Rose. Cheap Rangers Jerseys . Pospisil, from Vancouver, and Sock will compete for the title against defending champions and top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States, who defeated the 12th-seeded French duo of Michael Llodra and Nicolas Mahut 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-2.ST. LOUIS - A company tied to St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke has purchased a prime piece of land in the Los Angeles area amid speculation the NFL franchise is considering a return to the city it left for the Midwest nearly two decades ago. Team officials on Friday provided a written statement confirming the recent purchase of a 60-acre site in Inglewood, Calif., adjacent to the shuttered Hollywood Park racetrack. The Los Angeles Times first reported the purchase. "As real estate developers, the Kroenke Organizations are involved in numerous real estate deals across the country and North America," the statement said. "While we can confirm media reports that we recently purchased land in Inglewood, as a private company we dont typically discuss our plans for commercial or residential investments. We have yet to decide what we are going to do with the property but we will look at all options, as we do with all of our properties." The property is three miles east of Los Angeles International Airport runways and sprawls between the newly renovated Forum concert venue, former home of the Los Angeles Lakers, and Hollywood Park, which closed Dec. 22 after 75 years of horse racing. The latter 260-acre site is slated for development of 3,000 housing units, commercial space and parks. The land was previously owned by Wal-Mart, which hoped to build a superstore there but could not win local voter approval for the project. Kroenke is a former Wal-Mart board member who is married to the daughter of company co-founder Bud Walton and continues to build shopping centres for the retailer. Los Angeles has lacked an NFL team since both the Rams and Raiders left in 1994. The Rams can break their 30-year lease in St. Louis after the 2014 season — a decade early — but have said little about their plans. The Rams lease requires the Edward Jones Dome to remain among the top quarter of the 32 NFL stadiums, based on various criteria. The St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission, which manages the dome, last year offered a $124 million improvement plan that included a bigger scoreboard and better club seating, with the Rams paying slightly more half those costs. The team countered with a far more ambitious proposal tthat called for a new roof with a sliding panel and a bevy of improvements that would keep the city convention centre in the dome closed for three years.dddddddddddd City leaders rejected $700 million in publicly funded upgrades sought by the team. Speaking in New York before Sundays Super Bowl, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league was informed of the Kroenke purchase and noted that any stadium development plan would require approval from two-thirds of the NFLs 32 owners. "Were aware of it," Goodell said. "There are no plans, to my knowledge, of a stadium development. Anything that would require a stadium development would require multiple votes of the membership." Goodell cautioned against "overreacting" to the Kroenke land purchase, saying "we should make sure we do whats necessary to continue to support the team locally, which the fans have done in St. Louis. And make sure we can do whatever we can to make sure that team is successful in the St. Louis market." Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he thinks "its unfortunate that a generation of fans have grown up without" a team in Los Angeles. "We definitely want a team in L.A. ... We need to make sure we have the right owner and the right facility, and until at least 24 owners feel that, we wont have it," Kraft said in New York. "Just personally, I would like to see a team in L.A. as soon as possible." Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has taken over negotiations with the Rams and Kroenke after arbitration between the team, the commission and the stadium authority failed. James Shrewsbury, chairman of the St. Louis Regional Convention and Sports Complex Authority, which owns the downtown dome, referred questions about the Los Angeles purchase to the governor. "Its hard to comment on it since we dont know what his purpose is," Shrewsbury said, referring to Kroenke, who could not be reached for comment. "He hasnt said what he plans to do with it." The football St. Louis Cardinals moved to Arizona in 1987, and the city went nearly a decade without a franchise until the Los Angeles Rams arrived in 1995. AP Sports Writer Howard Fendrich contributed to this report from New York. 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