SURPRISE—Phil Humber threw three scoreless innings, Mark Teahen homered and the one White Sox squad rallied for a 7-6 victory over the Texas Rangers. Humber allowed two hits, struck out two and walked none. His status appears to be tied to Jake Peavy: The White Sox are searching for a long reliever as well as a starter in case Peavy’s not ready to go when the season starts.Humber has bounced around since he was traded from the New York Mets to the Minnesota Twins in the Johan Santana deal in 2009. The Kansas City Royals waived the right-hander in December, and he was picked up by Oakland. He joined the White Sox after the Athletics cut him in January.He threw 19 of his 26 pitches for strikes against the Rangers.While Humber provided some good news, the White Sox lost right fielder Dayan Viciedo to a broken right thumb when he was hit by an inside changeup from Dave Bush in the eighth inning.Viciedo, in the middle of a terrific spring, is expected to miss 2 to 4 weeks.

SCOTTSDALE—Gordon Beckham hit a two-run homer in a three-run first inning, leading the other split-squad of White Sox to a 5-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night.The White Sox have 33 extra-base hits and 43 runs in their last five games. Beckham finished with three hits against Arizona and is 9 for 18 with four RBIs in his last five.The Diamondbacks fielded a lineup of mostly regulars but managed only three hits off Gavin Floyd, who allowed a run and three hits over 4 2-3 innings in his third spring training start.Russell Branyan and Gerardo Parra homered for Arizona. Parra hit a two-run shot off top prospect Chris Sale in the seventh.Armando Galarraga pitched three innings for the Diamondbacks, yielding five runs and seven hits in his third spring start. He struck out two and walked two.The right-hander has allowed seven earned runs in eight innings this spring.

MESA—Ron Santo’s family and Hall of Famers Fergie Jenkins and Billy Williams helped the Cubs pay tribute to their beloved former broadcaster before a 2-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday.The team unveiled a plaque dedicated to Santo during the pregame ceremony. It sits right below his spot in the press box and says: “From this booth, Cubs legend Ron Santo signed thousands of autographs for Cubs fans from around the world.” Santo died on Dec. 3 at the age of 70 from complications of bladder cancer. A nine-time All-Star in his 15-year career, Santo hit .277 with 2,254 hits, 342 homers and 1,331 RBIs. He had finished his 21st season broadcasting his former team in September.The pregame ceremony before 7,186 fans at HoHoKam Stadium also included members of team chairman Tom Ricketts’ family, Mesa mayor Scott Smith and Santo’s son, Jeff. “There’s mixed emotions,” Jeff Santo said. “We hurt for our dad and at the same time, we’re honoring him. We live on for many generations and it’s an honor to us, but it also gets overwhelming, too, because we miss him so much.” Brett Jackson hit a two-out RBI single in the ninth to win the game for the Cubs, who also got solid pitching performances from Randy Wells and Andrew Cashner. Wells tossed four innings of one-hit ball, with two strikeouts and one walk. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in nine spring innings.Cashner also pitched four innings, holding the Indians to Jayson Nix’s homer in the sixth inning. He allowed three hits and could be a starter or reliever.Cleveland right-hander Justin Masterson also had a nice day, striking out five in three perfect innings.

NOTES—The Cubs wore No. 10 hats in pregame workouts and there was a painted No. 10 behind home plate. Fans received a No. 10 sticker and a baseball card with a black and white photo of Santo at Rendezvous Park in Mesa from spring training 1965. …Kosuke Fukudome went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts to drop his average to .217 and second baseman Blake DeWitt is at .182 after a 0-for-2 effort. … Nix’s home run pushed his average to .105.

CHARLOTTE—Derrick Rose and Kyle Korver scored 20 points apiece and the Bulls pulled away in the fourth quarter to beat the Charlotte Bobcats 101-84 on Wednesday night, a victory dimmed by Carlos Boozer’s leg injury.Boozer had X-rays on his left ankle that were negative after he left late in the fourth quarter following a scary fall from a flagrant foul by Bobcats center Kwame Brown. Boozer was going in for a layup as the Bulls led by points when Brown swiped and hit him across the chest. Boozer’s left leg bent awkwardly as he hit the floor Boozer eventually got to his feet and limped to the bench. After being examined, it was determined he was unable to take the free throws and was helped to the locker room.Coach Tom Thibodeau said Boozer would be examined on Thursday. It wasn’t immediately known if he would miss any time.Boozer had 10 points and seven rebounds.Korver had 12 points in the final period and Joakim Noah added 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Bulls, who won for the 11th time in 13 games and expanded their hold on second place in the Eastern Conference to 2½ games over slumping Miami.Gerald Henderson had 20 points and eight assists for the Bobcats, who played again without Stephen Jackson and Tyrus Thomas in their sixth straight loss.The Bobcats, the only sub-.500 team to beat the Bulls more than once this season, faded late before Brown’s foul sapped a joyous mood for the Bulls.Charlotte knows all about injuries as its season begins to slip away.The Bobcats played a third straight game without their top scorer Jackson (hamstring), and 24th without sixth man Thomas (knee surgery), despite coach Paul Silas declaring both ready to play a day earlier.Backup center Joel Przybilla was then scratched before the game because of increased pain in his surgically repaired right knee. And with guard Matt Carroll (ankle) sidelined, Charlotte had 10 healthy bodies.Still, the Bulls took a while before they wore down Charlotte.With former Bulls star and Bobcats owner Michael Jordan sitting courtside, Henderson did a decent impersonation of his boss on a twisting reverse layup along the baseline in a third quarter that saw Charlotte take a 68-67 lead on another hoop by Henderson.Then Rose went to work with a nifty fadeaway and 3-pointer to give the Bulls a 75-69 lead entering the fourth.Korver had two big 3-pointers in the Bulls dominant fourth quarter. The first made it 84-72 with 7:13 left and the second put the Bulls ahead 92-75 with under five minutes to go.The Bulls shot 51 percent and held an eighth straight opponent to under 90 points as they continue to show the potential to win the East.But slowing down the Bobcats is much easier thanks to injuries and Jordan’s decision to trade former All-Star Gerald Wallace to Portland.After late-game success in an early meeting, Silas started with the shooting guard Henderson guarding Rose. Henderson picked up a foul 18 seconds in.But while Rose didn’t have a huge game on offense, he helped make Charlotte’s D.J. Augustin ineffective at the other end. Charlotte’s point guard was held to six points and three assists.The Bobcats had strange lineups all night. One particularly odd unit of Henderson, Shaun Livingston, Eduardo Najera, D.J. White and Dante Cunningham helped Charlotte build a 40-34 second-quarter lead.

NOTES—Jordan will be in Chicago on Saturday for the 20th anniversary celebration of the Bulls’ first championship. … The Bulls improved to 18-14 on the road, earning one more victory than all of last season. … Cunningham had 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting in his best game since coming over in the Wallace trade.

TAMPA—On a night when Steven Stamkos scored his NHL-leading 42nd goal, the Tampa Bay Lightning broke out of a puzzling offensive funk before finishing off the Blackhawks with a little pizazz.Martin St. Louis scored in regulation, then delivered the shootout winner in a 4-3 victory that ended a season-high four-game losing streak.The six-time All-Star spun in front of the net, set himself and fired the puck past goalie Corey Crawford for the only goal by either team in the shootout.Teddy Purcell also scored for the Tampa Bay, helping build a 3-1 lead before the Stanley Cup champions roared back on goals by Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews.Dwayne Roloson made 28 saves for the Lightning, then stopped Toews, Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa in the shootout.The loss was the second straight for the Hawls following a season-best eight-game winning streak.Stamkos got Tampa Bay off to a fast start with just his second goal in the last 13 games. St. Louis ended a four-game drought to break a 1-1 tie before Purcell put the Lightning up 3-1 with his first goal in seven games.It was just the second time in 10 games that the Lightning, who fell out of first place in the Southeast Division during its four-game skid, scored more than two goals. A poor first period cost the Blackhawks in a 3-2 loss to Florida that stopped a winning streak on Tuesday night. The Panthers scored three early goals against Crawford, who gave up three more in the first 22 minutes against Tampa Bay.Kane scored in the opening period. Sharp’s 34th of the season pulled the Blackhawks to 3-2. Toews, who had a nine-game points streak stopped against Florida, had assists on the Blackhawks’ first two goals and tied it 3-all with 16:30 remaining in regulation.

NOTES—The Blackhawks lost at Tampa Bay for the first time since December 2005. They had won three straight against the Lightning….Brian Campbell was scratched because of a lower body injury….Dave Bolland left the game with an upper-body injury and did not return.

SCOTTSDALE—Barry Zito allowed just two base runners with a hit and a walk over five shutout innings and the San Francisco Giants defeated the White Sox 4-2 on Wednesday. Zito had such an efficient day that he didn’t reach his pitch limit in the game. He finished with 10 more pitches in the bullpen.Zito outperformed Jake Peavy of the White Sox, who allowed one run – an Aubrey Huff solo home run – and one hit in 3 2/3 innings.Peavy is coming back from shoulder surgery in July that ended his season.Peavy said he plans to start every five days throughout the spring.The Giants fielded a lineup that could closely resemble their opening day group at the end of this month, with the exception of ninth-place hitter Mark DeRosa, who was the designated hitter Wednesday.Huff drove in two runs and San Francisco scored three in the sixth inning on RBIs from Andres Torres, Huff and Buster Posey off reliever Jeff Gray.Giants closer Brian Wilson worked out of a jam in his inning of work. He gave up two hits and a walk and struck out two.The White Sox got back-to-back solo home runs from Adam Dunn and Stefan Gartrell in the ninth inning.

NOTES—Before Wednesday’s game, the White Sox optioned RHP Lucas Harrell and RHP Jhonny Nunez to Triple-A Charlotte, and reassigned RHP Kyle Bellamy, LHP Charlie Leesman, C Josh Phegley, C Jared Price and OF Brandon Short to minor-league camp. … Bochy said the Giants could make roster cuts by this weekend.

MESA—Bruce Chen is happy Melky Cabrera is getting big hits for his team these days instead of against him.Cabrera had a bases-loaded triple in a five-run first inning to back Chen as the Kansas City Royals coasted to a 13-4 victory over the Cubs on Wednesday.Cabrera signed with the Royals as a free agent on Dec. 16 and is hitting .500 (10 for 20) with six RBIs this spring. He also had a double to lead off the fifth and scored on a double by Alex Gordon, who had three hits.A valuable lesson opposing pitchers will have to learn when facing Cabrera and the Royals, who jumped on Matt Garza, making his second start and third spring appearance after being acquired from Tampa Bay on Jan. 8.Garza gave up six runs and four hits, walked four and struck out four in 2 2-3 innings.He was re-signed as a major league free agent on Jan. 19 and came into camp raring to go. The 33-year-old left-hander made his second start of the spring and third appearance overall.Two of the hits off Chen were by Marlon Byrd, including a solo home run in the third inning. Byrd continued his solid spring with his sixth multihit effort in eight games. He is now 13 for 20.

NOTES—Alex Gordon had three hits, two RBIs and a stolen base for the Royals. … Brett Carroll scored three runs, but had no official at-bats. The first run was as a pinch-runner, the second two after he remained in the game as a DH and was hit by pitches twice. … Blake DeWitt and Jeff Baker continue to battle for the starting job at 2B for the Cubs. DeWitt might have an edge, but Baker would still see a lot of time as a utilityman. Darwin Barney is the likely backup at SS behind Starlin Castro.

SUNRISE—After his teammates stunned the red-hot Blackhawks with three first-period goals, goalie Tomas Vokoun did the rest for the Florida Panthers.Vokoun made 37 saves, including 27 over the last two periods, to help the Panthers hold on for a 3-2 victory that snapped the defending Stanley Cup champions’ eight-game winning streak.The victory also snapped Florida’s season-high five-game losing streak and gave Panthers coach Pete DeBoer his 100th NHL win.The game was the first between the teams since Dale Tallon, who spent 33 years in the Blackhawks organization and acquired many of the players who helped win the Stanley Cup last June, was hired as GM of the Panthers.David Booth, Clay Wilson and Marty Reasoner scored first-period goals to give Florida a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes. Vokoun’s 37 saves helped him improve to 8-3 in his last 11 starts against the Hawks.Marian Hossa and Patrick Kane scored for the Blackhawks, who hadn’t lost since a 4-3 setback against Columbus on Feb. 18. Their winning streak was the longest active run in the league and the second-longest this season.Corey Crawford made his 12th consecutive start in goal for the Blackhawks, but was pulled after the first period. Crawford, who was looking to tie Glenn Hall’s franchise record of nine consecutive victories, stopped five of eight shots.Marty Turco made seven saves in relief of Crawford.The Blackhawks outshot Florida 29-7 over the last two periods, 39-15 for the game.The 15 shots represented a season low for the Panthers, who recorded 17 shots in a 4-3 victory against the Rangers on Jan. 25.Booth opened the scoring at 4:06 after a turnover at the Chicago blue line. After stealing the puck, Michal Repik skated in and took a slap shot and Booth put in the rebound.Wilson, playing in only his fourth NHL game this season, made it 2-0 at 9:44. After Niclas Bergfors’ shot was blocked, Wilson fired a wrist shot that deflected off Ryan Johnson.Reasoner scored with only 6.9 seconds left in the period when he grabbed a loose puck in the high slot and fired a wrist shot over Crawford’s glove hand.Kane got the Hawks on the scoreboard at 11:03 of the second when he tapped in Brian Campbell’s pass from behind the net.Hossa made it 3-2 at 13:48 with his 30th goal in 46 career games against Florida. He one-timed Dave Bolland’s pass and beat Vokoun from near the left faceoff dot.

“It was all about the first period and the start of the game,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. “They outworked us. We had lazy habits and probably extended our shifts and the result is three goals. They were all preventable goals.If you’re looking for an easy game, you’re not going to find it in this league.”

NOTES—Jonathan Toews’ nine-game point streak, the longest active streak in the NHL, was snapped. Hossa now has the longest active streak after extending it to eight games….The Blackhawks fell one game short of tying the franchise record of nine consecutive victories, set in December 2008….Duncan Keith was in the lineup after missing the last 15 minutes of Saturday night’s game in Toronto after being hit by a shot on his right hand.

SCOTTSDALE—Jorge De La Rosa allowed two hits in four innings, prospect Jordan Pacheco hit a three-run homer and a Colorado Rockies’ split-squad beat the Cubs 4-0 Tuesday.Carlos Zambrano gave up one run and five hits in three innings – the first run he allowed in eight innings this spring training. Braden Looper retired his first seven batters before allowing a single, hitting a batter and giving up Pacheco’s homer.De La Rosa struck out five and walked none as the Rockies won for the third time in five home games.The Cubs had just five hits.De La Rosa gave up Geovany Soto’s leadoff double in the second and then retired Jeff Baker Kosuke Fukudome and Blake DeWitt on grounders.

NOTES—Bench coach Tom Runnels served as Rockies’ manager. … Rockies 1B Todd Helton singled in each of his first two at-bats and is 3 for 11. … Pacheco is 6 for 12 with seven RBIs. … LHP James Russell is scheduled to make his first start for the Cubs on Saturday in Las Vegas. … The Cubs were shut out for the second time in three days. … Cubs SS Starlin Castro singled in the fourth and has hit safely in all seven of games he has played.

GLENDALE—John Danks walked three in another wild outing but the White Sox beat a Colorado Rockies split-squad 9-8 on Tuesday.The left-hander, who had a career-high 15 wins last season, allowed two runs and five hits over 3 1-3 innings. He has five walks in 5 1-3 innings this spring.Ozzie Guillen pulled Danks in the fourth after he let four of the first five batters reach base. Anthony Carter came in and retired the next two batters to get out of the jam.Ty Wigginton hit a two-run homer off Danks in the fourth and also made some nice plays at third base.Gordon Beckham and Dayan Viciedo had three hits apiece for the Sox who went 8 for 14 with runners in scoring position. Tyler Flowers hit a solo homer.Viciedo, who also nailed a runner at the plate from right field in the eighth, is batting .476 this spring and leads the team with 10 hits.Dexter Fowler and Ben Paulsen each had two hits for the Rockies, and Michael McKenry had a solo homer in the ninth.

NOTES—Sox 3B Mark Teahen’s throwing error in the second inning was his fifth error in five games this spring. … Boxing legend Muhammad Ali visited the White Sox clubhouse on Tuesday morning to help spread the word about his charity organization. “I was glad that kids got to see what charity is all about,” Guillen said of Ali’s visit. “He wants to help the community without being somebody.”

NEW YORK—Hard to believe Connecticut had gone six years since its last victory at the Big East tournament.Kemba Walker and the Huskies stopped that skid against overmatched DePaul.The star guard scored 26 points and UConn won a Big East tournament game for the first time since 2005, beating the Blue Demons 97-71 on Tuesday in the opener of a conference showcase loaded with NCAA contenders.Jeremy Lamb, playing on a sore knee, had 17 of his 19 points in the first half for the 21st-ranked Huskies (22-9), who got back on track after losing four of their final five regular-season games. No. 9 seed UConn advanced to play Wednesday against No. 22 Georgetown, the No. 8 seed at Madison Square Garden.The Huskies had lost six straight Big East tournament games since beating Georgetown in the 2005 quarterfinals, a surprising streak of futility for a school that has won two national championships and six Big East tourney titles under Calhoun, its Hall of Fame coach.The slide included that classic, six-overtime loss in the 2009 quarterfinals to Syracuse, which handed the Huskies four of those six consecutive defeats.Alex Oriakhi, left out of the starting lineup following a recent slump, had 13 points and 19 rebounds for UConn, which held a 46-22 edge on the glass against the undersized Blue Demons.The Big East is expected to set a record by sending at least 10 of its 16 members, including Connecticut, to the NCAA tournament, expanded this year from 65 to 68 teams. The number could reach 11 if Marquette gets off the bubble and into the field.The 16th-seeded Blue Demons (7-24) twice cut the deficit to seven midway through the second half, but Walker and his young teammates held off DePaul and won going away.Walker, a first-team all-Big East selection and a contender for national player of the year, scored 19 points in the second half and left to a warm hand with 2:26 remaining. He also had seven rebounds and five assists.Brandon Young scored 20 points to lead the Blue Demons, who lost their last six games following their lone conference win of the season at Providence on Feb. 17.DePaul closed its first campaign under Purnell with 18 losses in 19 games against Big East opponents and heads home after a brief postseason trip to Manhattan.

NEW YORK—Darius Johnson-Odom scored 23 points and Jimmy Butler added 19 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists to lead Marquette to an 87-66 victory against Providence on Tuesday night in the opening round of the Big East tournament.The 11th-seeded Golden Eagles (19-13), considered by many to be the last of the 11 teams from the Big East with a chance at making the NCAA tournament’s field of 68, will play seventh-seeded and 20th-ranked West Virginia (20-10) in the second round on Wednesday night.Vincent Council had 21 points and seven assists for the Friars (15-17) and Marshon Brooks, whose 24.8 average led the conference in scoring and is second in the nation, finished with 20 points. They both were 7 of 19 from the field but Council was 6 of 9 on 3s and Brooks was 3 of 7. Marquette scored the first 17 points of the game, making six of its first eight shots from the field including all five 3-point attempts.Providence missed its first 11 shots from the field and it wasn’t close misses. Brooks finally scored on a drive 5:31 into the game to make it 17-2.Two free throws by Devonte Gardner gave Marquette its biggest lead of the half, 41-17 with 3:28 to go.The only thing that made the halftime score close to respectable was Council’s 9-1 run over the final 1:25, all