Sox, Humber stifle Yankees

NEW YORK — As bad luck would have it, White Sox general manager Ken Williams’ flight to New York was delayed 2 1/2 hours on Monday.

That gave him 2 1/2 hours at O’Hare Airport to hear it from Sox fans, who offered all sorts of suggestions on how to turn his under-achieving team around.

If any of them suggested manager Ozzie Guillen and the coaching staff should be replaced, the tip fell on deaf ears.

“The coaching staff is not throwing the baseball and not hitting the baseball,” Williams said when he arrived in New York to “give some hugs” to his 8-14 team that opened a four-game series at Yankee Stadium. “They’re doing what they’ve always done.”

The Sox beat the Yankees 2-0 to win for only the second time time in their last 12 games. Phil Humber (2-2) took a no-hitter into the seventh, and Sergio Santos pitched 1 1/3 innings for his first save and the Sox’ second of the season. It was the Sox’ first save opportunity since April 13.

Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko had the Sox’ RBI.

“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.”

Hitting coach Greg Walker “is used to taking the heat and he’s been consistent over the years the way teams have rebounded offensively,” Williams said.

“In professional sports, fingers will be pointed your way. None of them have gotten any dumber the last couple weeks. They’re same guys and I have a lot of confidence all of them.”

The Sox invested $125 million in payroll in this team, which has until now only infuriated and frustrated its fan base.

“Chicago White Sox fans, you have to earn their patronage,” Williams said. “And we haven’t earned it, so I don’t expect people to show up in droves until we earn it. This is the third week in April, there are a lot of games left and we will earn their respect and their patronage. Until then I wouldn’t expect it.”

“Call me crazy but I happen to think we have a pretty good team out there. You just wait for it to all click. The good thing about baseball is we play 162 games. I’m not going to draw conclusions about this start and say we’re not what we think we are.”