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Third to first

• Entering Friday's contest at Fenway Park, the White Sox had won 10 of their last 12 and had a 16-7 record in the last 23. This success came after trades of veterans Jake Peavy, Alex Rios, Matt Thornton and Jesse Crain.

"I have no explanation for it. I really don't," Danks said. "Those are good players and there's a reason why other teams wanted them. We are just playing better baseball."

• Chris Curley has been named Carolina League Most Valuable Player. The infielder for Class A Winston-Salem leads the Carolina League with 24 homers, 90 RBIs, 90 runs scored and 249 total bases. He is the third consecutive Dash player to win this honor, following Dan Black (2012) and Ian Gac (2011).

• Black and Semien were selected to the Southern League postseason All-Star team. Semien was promoted to Triple-A Charlotte in early August, while Black has 17 homers and 80 RBIs for the Barons. Micah Johnson, who leads the Minors with 83 stolen bases, was named the second baseman on the South Atlantic League postseason All-Star team. He has since been promoted from Class A Kannapolis to Winston-Salem to presently Double-A Birmingham.

• The White Sox bullpen has a 3.05 ERA in the season's second half, including a 1.91 ERA over the last 17 games and 47 innings entering Friday's series opener.

Scott Merkin is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Merk's Works, and follow him on Twitter @scottmerkin.
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