Sox know situation: Wins needed

Close, but not quite good enough.

That was the White Sox against the Yankees on Sunday at U.S. Cellular Field.

And that could very well be the Sox' season as a whole as they prepare for a final push against the first-place Minnesota Twins.

"We are playing the right way," Gordon Beckham said after the White Sox fell to New York 2-1 on Frank Thomas Day. "We are scrapping for everything. We are playing as good as you can ask.

"I don't think we are rolling right now. We are playing hard. It's just not exactly working out for us the last few days."

Actually, the Sox have lost nine of their last 14 and 13 of 20, which is why they're sitting 4½ games back with 32 to play.

There is plenty of time, and the White Sox have three games left against the Twins, at home in mid-September. By then, maybe they'll have figured out a way to put everything back together.

"I think we can still control our fate if we play well, because we do play Minnesota again, if we play well against these others teams," Paul Konerko said.

"But it's getting to that point where going into September you can't expect them (Twins) to fall on their face. They're too good of a team. We know they're not a team that's just going to forget how to play the game.

"We really have to string some games together, but that doesn't happen by just saying you're going to do it.

"You've got to start tomorrow first inning, early in the game and just go one inning by one inning and hopefully that amounts to a win. You do the same thing the next night and so on."

In Saturday's loss to the Yankees, starting pitcher John Danks was hammered early and the Sox were outscored 12-9. In Sunday's loss, they couldn't get anything going against starter Ivan Nova and four relievers.

While picking up his first major-league win, Nova pitched 52/3 innings and allowed 1 run on 5 hits.

"You've got to keep digging and having faith," said Juan Pierre, who singled with two outs in the fifth to score Beckham with the White Sox' lone run. "We were up against a tough pitcher and a tough team, and we didn't get it done.

"It's not an easy thing to do, but one RBI in the whole game, that's not going to beat the New York Yankees."

Gavin Floyd made it through 62/3 innings for the White Sox, allowing 2 runs on 7 hits.

"Today was a battle for me," he said. "I didn't feel right and I kind of wanted to go out there and keep the same mentality as far as keeping the ball down and everything.

"I'm just thankful for things that allowed us to keep in the game, especially when you don't feel right. Definitely (Nova) pitched very well."