"Alfonso Soriano isn't Albert Belle, who thrived on criticism. He's also not Milton Bradley or Todd Hundley, who couldn't get critics out of their heads.

Fans can boo him all they want.

"His (ability to tune out fans) is probably the best of all the people I've been around,'' Cubs manager Mike Quade said. "He shows up every day the same — 'Today's the day.' … There are times when he's on fire, and times when he's struggling. But being around him you wouldn't know how he's doing.''

This could be a very good thing for Soriano. He has been wearing a target on his back since signing his $136 million contract, and it got a lot larger when he told the Sun-Times' Gordon Wittenmyer that the booing of Chicago fans was "the worst'' in baseball.

That was ill-advised, to put it mildly, even if he was speaking out of sympathy for another player, the White Sox's Adam Dunn.

But Soriano did a nice bit of damage control before Wednesday night 4-3 White Sox victory, both with his words and his actions. He explained himself well, saying he had not meant to offend anyone.

"I think I was misunderstood," he told the Tribune's Paul Sullivan and other reporters. "The fans here are good. At the same time, when you're doing bad, they boo. But if you're doing good, they clap for you. It's nothing like I said they are bad fans. Here, everywhere — Cincinnati, St. Louis — any ballpark you go to and you're (not) doing good, what are they going to do? They're going to boo you. If you're doing good, they're happy. So it's not like they're the worst fans in the world."

Facing the White Sox's Jake Peavy, Soriano offered up one of his best efforts of the season. He walked in his first two plate appearances — his first multi-walk game of 2011 — stole second base (diving in head first on his first stolen base attempt of the season) and later, after singling down the left-field line, hustled from first to third on a single to right-center. His head was clearly in this game, which doesn't always seem to be the case."