Chicago White Sox: Adam Dunn and Alex Rios Still Looking to Click

The Chicago White Sox had several opportunities Wednesday night to tie the rubber game of their series with Texas. 

Two struggling White Sox found themselves with chances to turn the arrow around on their seasons with big hits late in the contest.

Both players failed to deliver.

Adam Dunn and Alex Rios have been the poster boys for Chicago's early season struggles. As we near the end of May, Dunn's average sits at a paltry .191. Rios is at .206 after an 0-for-four game that saw him come up short twice in the late innings.

Rios came up in the seventh and ninth innings with two runners on base and failed to get a ball out of the infield. Dunn pinch-hit for Brent Morel in the eighth with one out and the tying run on third.  He struck out.

Combined, Dunn and Rios, who have hit in the third and fifth spots in the lineup, are hitting .199 with nine home runs and 35 RBI. They're being paid a combined $24 million to do this.

Paul Konerko, the man between them in the lineup, is hitting .299 with 10 homers and 37 RBI.

One of these players is NOT in need of picking it up.

If we're to believe Ozzie Guillen, Rios is hitting the ball well, just right at people. If that's the case, he had better be patrolling center field for a four-leaf clover.

Konerko, who knocked in a run with a base hit in the seventh before Rios hit into a double play to end the inning, needs better protection in the lineup that Rios has provided.

Guillen has moved Carlos Quentin into the three slot. The fact that Quentin had a three-homer game in Chicago's 8-6 win on Tuesday suggests that he could be there for some time if Dunn's bat doesn't heat up.

Does Guillen move Dunn after Konerko in the lineup and hope Dunn comes around?

Now would be a good time, because the rest of the lineup is starting to figure it out.

Guys like Alexei Ramirez and A.J. Pierzynski have been been .300 hitters over their last dozen games. Morel is hitting .345 in his last 10 games. Gordon Beckham is hitting .321 over his last 10 games. Lead-off man Juan Pierre is in the midst of an eight-game hitting streak.

Rios had a similar rough patch when he joined the White Sox back in 2009, hitting .199 in the season's final 41 games.  He responded with one of his better seasons last year.  So far in 2011, the high water mark for Rios' average is .213.  You'd like to think he has nowhere to go but up.

Dunn's struggle shouldn't be a stunner because he's always been a feast or famine type of hitter. Dunn is a lifetime .250 bat for a reason.

We can only hope that the power numbers will rise.

For the commitment made to the veteran slugger, Guillen and the White Sox have no choice but to ride out the current drought.

The defense Rios provides in center suggest that Guillen will continue to write his name in the lineup.

Both Dunn and Rios should get the chance to break out of their season-long slumps. For White Sox fans, that becomes a frustrating question of when that will happen.