The White Sox win their 9th straight with a 2 – 0 shutout of Atlanta. Their winning streak has enabled the Sox to shave 7 games off the Minnesota Twins’ lead in the AL Central in 15 days, putting them within striking distance of first place with a 2 1/2 game deficit. Gavin Floyd gives Chicago another great start in the win; Sox starters have gone 11-1, 2.03, over the past 15 games.

The Marlins fire manager Fredi Gonzalez and two coaches, naming AAA New Orleans manager Edwin Rodriguez to replace him, although rumors are that owner Jeffrey Loria wants to convince former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine to take over the team. The move comes with Florida in 4th place in the NL East, but with a respectable 34-36 record. Loria explains that he wants to give the team a new impulsion.

He may have missed the season’s first month, but the Mariners’ ace, Cliff Lee, is still baffling hitters. He picks up is his 4th complete game of the season in defeating the Cubs, 8 – 1, also earning his 6th consecutive win and lowering his American League-leading ERA to 2.39. Michael Saunders homers and drives in 4 runs in support of Lee’s pitching.

In a move that surprises its players, the fourth-place Marlins (34-36) fire their manager, Fredi Gonzalez, along with bench coach Carlos Tosca and hitting coach Jim Presley. Edwin Rodriguez, the skipper of the team’s Triple-A affiliate in New Orleans, is named to fill the position on an interim basis.

Even when he loses, Nationals super-rookie Stephen Strasburg is almost untouchable. The Royals only score one run and strike out 9 times in 6 innings, but still hand him his first career loss, 1 – 0, behind Brian Bannister’s outstanding start. Strasburg collects his first hit and now has 41 strikeouts against only 5 walks in his first four starts.

Arizona State University, the #1 seed, gets bumped from the 2010 College World Series by losing their first two games. ASU had not lost consecutive games all season until this point.

The sale of the Texas Rangers by Tom Hicks to a group headed by Chuck Greenberg is not proceeding smoothly. Although announced in January, it is now before a Federal Bankruptcy Court. Judge Michael Lynn issues a ruling today that creditors are adversely affected by a plan to pay them $75 million and are entitled to vote on it. The sale could fall through if the creditors veto the deal, valued at $575 million overall; at issue is the treatment of $525 million in loans on which Hicks’s ownership group defaulted last year. Meanwhile, on the field, the Rangers beat Pittsburgh, 6 – 3, thanks to Josh Hamilton’s 17th homer of the year, extending his hitting streak to 17 games.

The White Sox extend their unlikely winning streak to seven games with a 9 – 6 victory over Atlanta to move one game above .500. They are helped by a freakish play with two outs in the 4th, when Alex Rios hits a ground ball that jumps inside 3B Brooks Conrad’s shirt for an infield single. Paul Konerko follows with a single and Carlos Quentin with a three-run homer for a 9 – 3 lead. Before the streak, both manager Ozzie Guillen and general manager Kenny Williams were rumored to be on the verge of losing their job.