CHICAGO – From where Ron Washington sat – and Tuesday night that was a very cold seat indeed – it sure was nice that Sammy Sosa hit a home run in his return to Chicago.

Very nice. Super nice. Awesome.

"It was a nice night not just for Sammy," Washington said, "but for the Texas Rangers."

Sosa's homer might have been the most dramatic moment of an 8-1 win over Chicago on a night when the temperature was 48 degrees at game time and dropping fast, but it wasn't the most significant.

If Washington has said it once this season, he's said it at least 13 times – once after each of the Rangers' games this young season: It's all about the pitching.

So from Tuesday's game, he'll remember that Sosa silenced the boos of 23,129 fans by driving a game-clinching three-run homer to center, and he'll remember that Ian Kinsler did what Ian Kinsler seems to do every night, which is launch a big hit.

Mostly, though, he will remember that Robinson Tejeda continues to show signs he is a legitimate starter entering full blossom. Tejeda allowed Chicago three hits and just a run in seven innings, making it the second time this season he's gone at least seven innings and allowed three or fewer hits.

It wasn't just the results, though. Tejeda showed the Rangers something by making a subtle adjustment after getting beaten around by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays last week. He tweaked his pitch selection by starting just enough at-bats with sliders and off-speed stuff to keep the White Sox from waiting on fastballs.

In his last start, Tejeda threw Tampa Bay a steady diet of first-pitch fastballs. The free-swinging Devil Rays rung out line drives all over Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. It had worked for him in his first start against Boston, when he threw seven shutout innings in the home opener. The difference: Boston was more willing to take first pitches for strikes, giving Tejeda an advantage; Tampa Bay negated the advantage by swinging at those first-pitch fastballs.

"What I did tonight was not very different from Tampa Bay," Tejeda said. "I changed speeds a little more. I threw a few more sliders early in the count."

After a rough first inning in which he walked consecutive hitters, the approach started to work. Chicago hitters fell behind, then popped pitches up. After the two walks, seven of the next eight hitters all hit harmless fly balls.

"When you see them hit those pop-ups, you know the ball is jumping out of his hand," Washington said. "When you pound the strike zone with one pitch and they start hitting that, you've got to go to something else. He showed that he understood that. He showed that he is learning, learning how to really pitch."

AP

Sammy Sosa gives his signature hop as he watches his three-run home run in the eighth inning.

While the White Sox kept popping balls up, the Rangers found a way to slice through the wind. Brad Wilkerson hit a two-run homer in the fifth to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. With runners on first and third and one out in the seventh, Kinsler lined an 0-and-1 sinker from Jon Garland into the left field stands.

"I was yelling at him to use the big part of the park," Washington said. "Somebody yelled at me in the dugout: Is that big enough for you, Wash?"

And in the eighth, with a runner on and two outs, the White Sox walked Mark Teixeira to get to Sosa. He drove a ball to right field for the crowning homer, the 591st of his career.

It made for a nice end to a nice night for the Rangers.