Chicago White Sox Week in Review: Now It's Time To Get Serious

In July, I'm going to Detroit (I know, go ahead and boo) for the USBC Junior Gold Championships.

For those of you saying "what?": It's a national youth bowling tournament. Three days, six games a day, bowling on the oil patterns the pros bowl on—and that's if you don't get knocked out after the first round. Norm Duke might be short and Pete Weber might be crazy, but they know how to bowl. Those lane conditions are no joke.

The point of this aside is that lately I've been criticizing for myself for being a good bowler, instead of a great one.

Good enough to bowl 200s on a house shot, but not great enough to pick up spares and post decent on scores on the PBA patterns.

Such is the story of the 2008 Chicago White Sox as we step into June—good, but not great.

The Sox are good enough to lead the division, but not great enough to win close games and beat other good teams. They are a combined 10-17 this season against teams who currently have winning records (A's, Twins, Rays, Blue Jays, Angels).  In 16 of those games, they scored three runs or less. Not great baseball, but good enough that the Sox are on top of the AL Central.

Well, the time has come—both for the Sox and myself. Junior Gold starts July 7, and the MLB All-Star Break is seven days after that. Between now and then, both of us need to get our collective acts together. Since I know you didn't come to hear me talk about what I need to do (pick up spares and get a new ball or two), here's what the Sox need to do to win in June:

Be more than One-Hit Wonders

The Sox showed that they could play with the Rays this weekend, but the Rays showed that they could beat the Sox. The same thing was going on back on the North Side, as the Cubs posted come-from-behind victories over the "On Holliday" Rockies.

The Sox need to follow the example of both those teams and make the most of their scoring chances. Too many times, they'll have a one- or two-run inning, then fail to score for the rest of the game. You can't drive in every potential run, but consistently leaving runners stranded in scoring position with less than two outs is unacceptable. As Ed Farmer always says, keep the line moving.

You can't spell fundamentals without "fun"

Winning is fun, and you can't win without executing the fundamentals. Lay down the sacrifice bunts, move runners over, and—for the love of everything good—hit sacrifice flies. A sac fly in the 10th inning would have given the Sox the lead in Sunday's game, and I wager that they would have won if Pablo Ozuna scored the go-ahead run. The Sox have been lax on fundamentals, and that has added up to a lot of losses.

Own your yard

The Sox have seen a lot of charter buses and hotels in the first two months of the season. Now, they get to enjoy the comforts of home for most of June, and they must take advantage.

The top teams in this young season are making a killing at home, and playing at Comiskey is a great scenario after the ChiSox dropped the last three in Tampa Bay. The warm weather, combined with the hitter-friendly makeup of Comiskey Park (not to mention three games with the down-and-out Royals) should be a tonic for the homer-happy Sox offense.

Ignore what that "other" team is doing

This is for us fans as well as the team. The Cubs, being the Cubs, are going to get publicity in droves as long as they continue their winning ways. The Sox (and the fans) need to ignore the North Siders and concentrate on winning these next games. The Cubs shouldn't be on the radar until the Good Guys and the Boys in Blue lock it up for the Crosstown Showdown. Until then, as James Hetfield so eloquently said, nothing else matters.

This week's Beast of the Week Award goes to the White Sox pitching staff, for the sole reason that they held the Rays to nine runs in the four-game series. And don't go saying that the bullpen lost two games—home runs can come at anytime.

I've said that the Sox offense heats up with the weather. Chicago is heating up every day, and it's time for the big bats to follow suit. June will be the unmasking of this team, as every good Sox team I've seen posted a good record in the sixth month.

Are these the Fighting Sox that I think they are? Or will they go quietly into that warm summer night, with so many other Chicago also-rans?

More importantly: can I pick up my spares consistently?

We'll find out come July. Until then, keep waving the Pennant.