It’s not a pins-and-needles situation, but the White Sox are realizing there will be no cushion similar to the 2005 regular season.
On Tuesday night, they open a three-game series against American League Central leader Detroit without much margin for error after losing five of their last six games and watching their one-game deficit expand to 4 1/2 games.
“It’s going to be a bigger series,” catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. “They want to show us we don’t have a chance to catch them, and we want to show them we can. It’s going to come down to us playing well.”
The Sox, from manager Ozzie Guillen to his players, recognize they haven’t been hitting in the clutch or playing the mistake-free baseball that typified the 23-8 stretch they enjoyed before falling into a rut three games before the All-Star break.
“We have to look at it like we need to play well,” Pierzynski said. “It’s not about the standings. We haven’t been pitching well. We haven’t been hitting well the last few days. Against Boston, we didn’t play real well. I don’t know if it was the break sandwiched there or what.
“We just haven’t played very well. It’s something we take pride in, coming every day and playing well and putting pressure on the other team.”
The Sox have taken five of six games from the Tigers, including four by two runs or fewer because of their ability to hit in the clutch. That trait deserted them as they went 5-for-35 over the weekend in New York. That has put more stress on a pitching staff that has allowed five runs or more in its last seven games.
“We’re going to control the outcome of what happens between now and the end of the season,” leadoff man Scott Podsednik said. “We can’t get caught up with who we’re playing or how many games you’re behind. Just focus your energy on that game.
“You look ahead and look at the standings, you can waste a lot of time. That’s why we were in that situation last year. We didn’t get caught up [in] what was going on.
“We have [71] games left. Anything can happen. Division [titles] are lost and won in the second half of the season. That’s how it’s always been.”
Despite the Tigers’ resurgence, the Sox have won 10 of their last 12 games at Comerica Park, including last September’s division-clinching game and three straight in April.
“I like to play Detroit in Detroit a lot,” Guillen said. “We play well at their ballpark.”
But the Tigers have lost two consecutive games only once since dropping the first two games of a three-game series June 6-7 in Chicago.
“They deserve all the attention they’re getting, and they’ve played awesome throughout the year,” third baseman Joe Crede said. “It’s going to be fun to see what’s going to happen.We know it will still go down to the wire.
“We know we’re going to have to have a very good September and we don’t have the lead we had last year. But we also know these games will be big in the last two weeks of September.”
Taking a series from Detroit would allow the Sox to stay close to the Tigers in the division race, rather than trying to stay ahead of the Yankees in the AL wild-card chase.
“My thing is win the division,” Guillen said. “It’s easier to win the division than win the wild card. I would rather have one headache then seven headaches.”
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mgonzales@tribune.com
