Beckham, Morel, Dunn come alive vs. Mariners

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The White Sox aren't going to lose many games when the three hitters before Adam Dunn get on base a total of six times -- and Dunn looks like the old version of himself.

That's what happened Friday against Seattle, as Gordon Beckham (2B, BB), Alejandro De Aza (two 1B) and Brent Morel (1B, BB) set the table for Dunn, who clobbered two home runs and picked up a double in perhaps his best game with the White Sox.

Okay, it wasn't perhaps Dunn's best game with the White Sox -- it was his best game with the White Sox. The only other game close to Dunn's 3-4, 10 total bases, 5 RBIs effort came last May 11 against Los Angeles, in which Dunn hit a home run and double as part of a 4-5 day against the Angels.

Dunn hadn't had a multi-homer game since Sept. 24, 2010. He hadn't drove in five runs since that day, and the only time he drove in more than three runs with the White Sox came on Opening Day last year in Cleveland.

But the RBIs wouldn't have been possible without the efforts of Beckham, De Aza and Morel. The first inning saw De Aza single, Morel walk and Dunn double to put the Sox up 1-0 early. Dunn's second-inning home run was powered by a Beckham double and then back-to-back singles by De Aza and Morel, the latter of which scored Beckham.

Dunn hasn't struggled as mightily as he did last year out of the gate, but it hasn't been a roaring start to 2012, either. But Dunn has shown some signs of life lately, going 6-10 with four walks, three doubles, two homers and 9 RBIs in his last three games. Even a three-game stretch that good would've been unprecedented in last year's struggles.

For Morel and Beckham, there's a much longer way to go. But, for what it's worth, Beckham has started to see some results in his last few games, and the Sox have to hope that's a product of him feeling more comfortable with his newly-tweaked approach. For Morel, he had only reached base multiple times in a game once this year, that being April 14 vs. Detroit. He followed that up by going 1-17 with no walks and nine strikeouts in his next four games.

These three players -- Beckham, Dunn and Morel -- are extremely important to the success of the White Sox offense, at least as they're positioned now in the lineup. When the lineup turns over, Beckham and Morel sandwich De Aza, who can't be very effective setting the table for the middle of the order with two offensive black holes around him. But if Beckham and Morel are hitting, it'll do wonders for the RBI totals of Dunn and Paul Konerko, assuming Dunn can keep up his .265.378.571 line which, dare I say, looks an awful lot like the Adam Dunn of old.

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