Chicago White Sox Must Handle Division Business To Win AL Central

The Chicago White Sox have been in and out of the American League Central division race this summer. Ozzie Guillen's crew appeared to drop out of contention following a four-game sweep at the hands of the Yankees.

Since then, Chicago has gone on a 8-2 tear to find themselves within striking distance of both the Tigers and Indians once again. The gap has closed to 3.5 games as the White Sox prepare to host Cleveland in a big three-game series against a division opponent.

That scenario is going to be quite familiar to the ChiSox over the season's final six weeks.

Of Chicago's last 42 games, 31 see them squaring off against a division opponent. Ten of those games are against the Indians. Six more are against Detroit.

Sounds simple: beat the teams in your division and you win that division. The Tigers have practiced that policy in 2011, going 26-16 against the other teams in the division compared to the 20-21 record sported by the White Sox.

Chicago can set the tone in the Cleveland series, which they could use to leapfrog the Indians in the standings and get above the .500 mark for the first time since April 15. It can't stop there, however.

After eight games with AL West foes in the Rangers, Angels and Mariners, the White Sox have 28 straight division games staring them in the face. As the season winds down, Chicago certainly holds a degree of control of their division fate.

Part of utilizing that control comes in handling the Twins and Royals, who are a combined 36 games under .500. Despite recent success against these two teams in the last two weeks, the White Sox are 9-13 this season against Minnesota and Kansas City.

With seven games remaining with the two teams in the division basement, Chicago has to take advantage. Especially when the Tigers are 16-5 against those same teams.

I've said from the start of this season that the key to the division lies in the White Sox improving on last year's 32-40 mark. With the Central Division miraculously still within their grasp, the same logic applies.