Bronx Beatdown

The New York Yankees took a page out of the NYPD's handbook and firmly placed a broom stick up the backside of the Chicago White Sox this weekend at Yankee Stadium.

It was probably the most embarassing series I've seen the White Sox play in a long time. I remember almost a year ago when the Sox were last in the Bronx. Jose Contreras started his 17-game win streak, Aaron Rowand flew around center field making one spectacular catch after another and the White Sox took 2 out of 3. After that series, they finally started getting some of the respect they had deserved all season.

Not this time.

A 6-4 loss on Friday ended Contreras' streak, a 14-3 drubbing featured Mark Buehrle's third straight horrible start, and then another 6-4 loss to complete the sweep in which the Sox renowned 3-4-5 combo of Thome, Konerko, and Dye combined to go 1-13.

It's not so much that the Sox got swept by a very good, and very hot team. It's the timing of it all.

The Sox start their second half with what's probably the toughest part of their schedule. The first six games in New York and Detroit, followed by a homestand featuring the Rangers and Twins.

So when you're trailing the Tigers by 2.5, it's not a good idea to lose three in a row while those Tigers play the Royals. As a result, the Sox series with the Tigers that starts tomorrow night almost becomes a make or break series (as make or break as a series in July can be, anyway). If the Sox sweep they're back to within 1.5, if they get swept, they're back 7.5 games. The White Sox HAVE to take at least 2 of the three games, if for nothing else than to keep the doubt in the back of the Tigers' minds.

The Sox have beaten the Tigers 5 out of 6 games this year, but a bad series this week will erase all of that and give the Tigers the confidence they'll need to win the AL Central.

To make matters even worse, this moves New York to within 3 games of the White Sox in the Wild Card hunt. Now obviously, neither team is playing for the wild card right now, both want their respective divisions. Still for the Sox it's a lot easier to concentrate on the Tigers when they have a nice cushion in the wild card, and they don't have that anymore.

The most worrisome part of this whole thing though has to be the starting pitching. I don't expect our pitchers to perform at the level they did last season, but that doesn't mean they should be as awful as they have.

In Mark Buehrle's last three starts he's 0-3 with an ERA OVER 13.00. Freddy Garcia is throwing batting practice, Javier Vazquez seems to throw 100 pitches an inning, and Jose Contreras is finally starting to show some chinks in his armor.

The only consistent starter we have right now is Jon Garland, and he's only been consistent for the last month.

Personally, I'm starting to wonder if our improved offense is partially to blame for our struggling pitchers. Last season the Sox starting rotation couldn't afford to give up runs, cuz the offense struggled to score them. This season the starters have been spoiled by the Sox offense putting up double-digit run totals night after night.

I wonder if the comfort of knowing that the offense is capable of exploding at any time has allowed the concentration of the Sox' starting staff to slip. Maybe they aren't treating every pitch as if its outcome is of dire consequence (like they had to last year), and it's biting them in the ass.

The best thing to come out of this weekend may be the fact that the Cliff Politte Era has finally come to an end on the South Side. After another horrible performance on Saturday in relief, the Sox designated the right handed veteran for assignment, in effect ending his days as a White Sox.

Cliff was absolutely fantastic last season, and an integral part in a dominant White Sox bullpen that helped them to their first World Series win in 88 years. This year though, he has looked utterly hopeless out on the mound. Ozzie gave him chance after chance (in my opinion about two months' worth of chances too many) but finally realized that when amidst a pennant race, you can't afford to let a guy try to work through his problems too long.

Now I'm not in panic mode, nor should any other Sox fan be. This team is capable of getting hot in a hurry, and there are still problems facing the Tigers.

Kenny Rogers has a long history of having bad second halves to follow his outstanding first halves.

Justin Verlander and a lot of the other young Tiger hurlers aren't used to pitching over such a long season.

Todd Jones and Fernando Rodney aren't as reliable out of the bullpen as they need to be.

Can Marcus Thames and Chris Shelton continue to hit the way they did in the first half all season, or will the math start to catch up to them?

With the exception of Mike Maroth, the Tigers have been healthy all year, but Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez have an injury history. Can both stay healthy throughout the second half?

Can they beat the White Sox?

The answer to that last question will be easy if the White Sox continue to pitch the way they have been in July, and it would also make every other point moot. However, whether the Tigers collapse or not is not the biggest question facing the White Sox in their second half.

It's whether or not the White Sox can get batters out during the second half that's going to decide the AL Central, and quite possibly the AL Pennant.

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