You play for the White Sox, so you know things are bad — in fact, about as bad as they can be.
You know things are bad because you have just been small-balled by the Cubs, of all teams, beaten 2-1 Saturday on a suicide-squeeze bunt.
You know things are bad because when you go to work Sunday, it will be with the knowledge the Cubs could sweep you in a three-game series at The Cell for the first time.
You know things are bad because the Cubs also have a chance to catch you in your all-time series — 30 victories each.
You know things are worse — unbelievably so — because the 2007 White Sox are in imminent danger of having the fewest victories in Major League Baseball.
You wish you could explain it, though you really aren’t sure how.
If you are Scott Podsednik, you say: “We’re last in almost every offensive category … you’re not going to win many games like that.”
If you are Jim Thome, you say: “Really, all of our pitchers are doing fine. It’s just that offensively we can’t do anything.”
If you are Darin Erstad, you say: “Sometimes you just have to wear it on the chin.”
If you are Jermaine Dye, you know things are bad because you come to the park Saturday expecting to be placed on the disabled list, only to learn Erstad is going on the DL before the game and you’re not.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Dye said.
You know things are bad when your team’s starting outfield (Podsednik, Luis Terrero and Andy Gonzalez) comes into a big June game with a grand total of 30 hits.
You know things are bad when your ex-outfielders Magglio Ordonez, Aaron Rowand and Carlos Lee all rank among MLB’s top 25 in hits, and when your ex-DH Frank Thomas is spending his day enjoying his 498th career home run.
You know things are bad when your manager needs to bring in your bullpen closer, Bobby Jenks, in the eighth inning, not the ninth.
You know things are bad when Jenks, your only All-Star-to-be, blows the game in the ninth.
You know things are bad when your team’s record in interleague play falls to an abysmal 4-13.
You know things are bad when you can’t get a hit off Rich Hill, Carlos Marmol, Will Ohman, Michael Wuertz or Bob Howry after the fourth inning.
You know things are bad when it is June 24 and your team has won five times all month.
You know things are bad when even the easygoing, courteous-to-a-fault Thome snaps at a plate umpire after a called third strike.
(“To be honest,” Thome said, “that ball he called me out on was a strike. I took a look at it on the TV. In the heat of the moment, sometimes you do things.”)
You know things are bad when the Cubs’ Alfonso Soriano crushes your pitcher’s second pitch of the game for a 402-foot home run.
You know things are bad when the only run your team can scrape together comes on a Podsednik single, a stolen base and two groundouts.
(“Soriano pops one out and he gets to jog around the bases while I need to strategically work my way around the bases,” Podsednik said wryly, as good an example of the Sox’s uphill struggle as you will find.)
You know things are bad when your shortstop (Juan Uribe) is hitting an automatic-out .214.
You know thing are bad when your next opponents are Tampa Bay and Kansas City and they’re looking forward to playing you.
You wish you had an explanation, but you don’t.
Thome was asked if all these losses have a snowball effect.
“The bottom line is you have to win games. I don’t know what effect it is,” he said.
Erstad was asked if the Sox had any idea what is wrong with them. “You can’t explain it sometimes. There’s no answer,” he said.
Podsednik was asked if there is anything else the Sox can do at this point.
“We have to get the offense going, but I don’t know how we’re going to do it … you have any ideas?” he asked.
No. None.
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mikedowney@tribune.com
