Sox fall 6 games back after 6-3 loss to Tigers

DETROIT -- If you would have told the White Sox they'd go 7-3 on a road trip that wrapped up against the Tigers at Comerica Park Thursday, it would have been welcomed news.

That's exactly how the Sox fared, but it wasn't even close to being good enough.

Starting out the trip with seven straight wins at Cleveland (3), Boston (3) and Detroit (1), the White Sox are limping back home after another uninspired loss to the Tigers, this one by a 6-3 count.

"The road trip was pretty tough," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "But coming from Boston and playing the way we did the first game here, we played very well. The last three, we played very bad. We couldn't make the right pitches, our defense struggled, our hitting was flat.

"We had a lot of guys that took a few 0-fors the last two days. When you put it all together, it's hard to win games."

After winning the series opener Monday, the Sox lost three straight to Detroit while being outscored 20-5.

In the last two, the No. 5-9 hitters were a combined 0-for-30. And Manny Ramirez, the White Sox' new No. 5 hitter, was 0-for-8 with 2 strikeouts in the three losses to the Tigers.

Ramirez has played in 8 games with the Sox since being claimed off waivers from the Dodgers. Forget about his first home run, Ramirez doesn't even have an RBI yet.

"I think Manny right now is like everybody else, he's struggling at the plate," Guillen said. "Hopefully, Manny gets home and swings the bat better."

The White Sox have 22 games left, and 16 are at U.S. Cellular Field.

But they started the 10-game road trip 41/2 games behind the first-place Twins. The deficit has swelled to 6 as Minnesota has won 8 of 9.

"It (stinks)," said Alex Rios, who hit a 2-run homer in the fourth inning. "When you have a pretty good road trip like that and it's not good enough for what we want to do - we have to go back tomorrow and start winning games."

And the Twins have to start losing, preferably before they arrive on the South Side Tuesday for a three-game series that's not looking so big anymore.

"They've got to cool down sometime," said starter Gavin Floyd, who was hit hard in Thursday's loss. "It's still a good trip. I think overall on the road we haven't had as much success as we have at home, and to have a good trip was nice.

"At the same point, we're trying to get closer to Minnesota and they play even better than us during this trip. We've got to put this behind us and focus on (Friday)."

The White Sox have climbed out of bigger holes this season, but now they're running out of time.

"One thing about it, we're not going to quit," Guillen said. "We're going to continue to fight. As a manager, that's all you can ask the players. Hopefully this thing, we went through it twice, three times and we made a pretty good comeback. Our expectation is to do it again."

Scot Gregor's game tracker Tigers 6, White Sox 3String of failure: In the last two games against Detroit, the Sox' No. 5-9 hitters were a combined 0-for-30.More miscues: Right fielder Carlos Quentin made an error in the third inning that led to an unearned run. The White Sox have made 18 errors in their last 15 games.Floyd flops: Starter Gavin Floyd took the loss after giving up 6 runs (5 earned) in 6 innings. He also allowed 13 hits, which ties a career high. Floyd is 2-7 with a 6.18 ERA vs. AL Central teams this season.False441512White Sox starting pitcher Gavin Floyd throws against the Detroit Tigers in the first inning of a baseball game in Detroit, Thursday.Associated PressFalse