Plenty of power helps Garcia knock off nemesis Royals

The Minnesota Twins keep winning and winning, and they appear capable of running away and hiding in the AL Central.

Paul Konerko could care less.

"My opinion is we've got to get to .500 first before we start looking at the first-place team," said the White Sox' captain. "Right our ship, get going, do the things we're capable of doing. And then if you get into June or July and you feel like you're playing pretty good ball, and they (the Twins) don't lose and just keep on going, then it's a different story.

"But right now we don't feel like we've been much of an opponent to this point. Detroit's been doing good, they're no no pushover, they're a quality team. We just need to get in on that fight. Right now, we don't have the right to be talking about that."

Konerko and the Sox did manage to put some lumps on the Royals in Wednesday night's 9-2 win at U.S. Cellular, and they came away with their second series win of the season.

But until the 12-16 White Sox get to the break-even mark and above, they are going to be widely viewed as an underachieving club.

"Everything in life is about consistency," Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "When you're not consistent doing something, you're always going to fail. I think that's happened here."

The Sox have been the model of inconsistency over the first five weeks of the season, but Konerko said the effort has been there - for the most part.

"When you go home after the game can you say, 'They got everything I had and the team had?'" Konerko said. "If you can say yes and it just doesn't work out, no one can say anything to you. When we were in Cleveland (three straight losses in mid-April), I thought we were moping around a little bit. We were kind of in a bad place there and I don't think we were giving our best effort.

"But since then, I think we've done well. I see guys competing and fighting. Again, at the end of the day, did you give it everything you had? Other than those couple of games in Cleveland, I think the answer is yes. So just keep doing it and believe that it will turn.

"There's always going to be doubt, but you have a plan when you start the season and you just keep believing. Over 162 (games) you just trust the schedule that the good stuff will come out if you go about it the right way, the talent of all the teams will show through and where that puts us at the end is we hope as a first-place team."