Detroit, supposedly one of the best offensive teams ever assembled, is 10 games behind.
Defending American League Central champion Cleveland is 8 1/2 games behind.
And now perennial pest Minnesota is even 5 1/2 games behind.
The Central has become a head-scratcher, with the only team still above .500 — the White Sox — enjoying the biggest margin of any division leader in baseball.
Not only that, but the Indians lost starter Jake Westbrook, and the Tigers are out starter Jeremy Bonderman for the season.
“When you get Westbrook and Bonderman out you’ve got to juggle the starting rotation, and that gives us an opportunity,” Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “I feel bad for those kids, but I don’t feel bad for the teams because it happened to me last year, and nobody felt bad for me.”
The White Sox are doing what they have to do to win a division: play well within the division. They are 20-8, including 5-1 against Detroit, 6-3 against Cleveland and 6-4 against the Minnesota Twins with the finale of a four-game series coming Monday before three games in Detroit.
Even with the ever-increasing lead, the Sox are trying to stay under the radar.
“Nobody picked us to be in the place we are,” Guillen said. “I said in Spring Training this team could be special. I don’t know how far we’re going to get, but it’s got a chance to be special.
“Hopefully we continue to increase the winning column … but this is not an easy division. You never know what’s going to happen. There’s too much talent in this division. You’ve got to stay low-key and win as many games as you can and see what happens.”
Veteran Jermaine Dye agreed that low-key is the way to go.
“It’s too early [to get excited],” Dye said. “You just try to win ballgames. When you get into August and September, then you worry about the [lead].”
But 5 1/2 games before June is half-over? That’s stuff from the championship team of three years ago.
“We feel we’re just starting to heat up now, and guys are starting to swing the bat,” captain Paul Konerko said. “But you talk about a team a couple of years ago that had a 14-, 15-game lead on Aug. 1, and it came all the way down to the last three games of the year. As soon as you think about that, it kind of puts it all in perspective.”
