Mark Buehrle stared at home plate Wednesday while Justin Morneau’s tie-breaking home run traveled an estimated 437 feet.
A.J. Pierzynski flipped his bat vigorously after popping out to shortstop in the sixth inning.
These were just two examples of the sputtering frustration that has typified the White Sox’s second-half malaise.
Their shortcomings ran deeper in a 7-4 loss that capped Minnesota’s three-game sweep and dropped the Sox’s record to 2-10 since the All-Star break.
“This is just bad,” Pierzynski said. “It seems like if we get the chance [to drive in runs], we don’t get them in. We get a good pitching performance, we don’t hit. We get a bad pitching performance, we seem to hit, but it’s not enough. Just bad for a couple of weeks now.
“We’re at the point now where we have to win games. . . . We’ve had it taken to us. . . . I don’t think we’re being aggressive enough. We’re sitting back and waiting for bad stuff to happen. That’s not what we do. We need to be . . . out there with a strut and confidence, and I don’t see that.”
The Sox possessed no swagger after Wednesday’s loss, which dropped them a season-high 8 1/2 games behind American League Central leader Detroit. But that seems the least of their immediate concerns.
“We can’t worry about the teams in front of us,” Pierzynski said after the Sox fell into a second-place tie with Minnesota. “We have to worry about ourselves.
“Minnesota came in here and kicked our tails. It’s not a good sign. You think for this series we could get up and play well, but we didn’t.”
Here are some cold facts:
– The Sox were swept in a three-game series for the second time since the All-Star break and have lost five consecutive series for the first time since dropping six straight Aug. 27-Sept. 15, 1999.
– After a 19-8 record in June, the Sox assured themselves of their first losing month since August 2005 with a 7-14 mark in July.
– All but one of their 11 runs in this three-game series scored on homers.
As ominous as those numbers are, manager Ozzie Guillen doesn’t want the Sox to settle for the wild-card playoff berth with 62 games left.
“I was 15 [games] up last year and [then] almost out of the pennant race,” Guillen said. “I’m optimistic. I still believe in those guys.
“I wouldn’t tell my team, `It’s time to look for the wild card, we’re losing.’ I don’t want that attitude.”
The Sox now are in a struggle for short-term survival. They haven’t won consecutive games since taking three straight July 4-6.
“I just think we need to take a step back,” said Paul Konerko, who hit two leadoff singles but didn’t score. “We’re like the hitter who hits .400 in April but has a few bad weeks and is hitting .310 or .320. and thinks it’s terrible.
“We just have to regroup, think of some good things and start fresh on Friday. We just need to get a couple of hits, score some early runs and not bring the baggage of these other games where we’re saying, `Here we go again.’
“It just takes strong minds and strong people. We have it and proved it. We just have to do it. It’s that simple. We’ll see what happens.”
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mgonzales@tribune.com
