Quentin now putting a hurt on opponents

Carlos Quentin has started looking like a science experiment after a White Sox game.

Heavily wrapped Sunday were his left knee, left shoulder, right elbow and right thigh.

His Achilles, ankles, wrists and ribs must have felt left out.

"Just aches and pains," Quentin explained after the White Sox' 15-5 victory over the Royals.

This is how Quentin rolls. He frequently is injured - or has "aches and pains," as he puts it - because of the way he plays the game.

Opposing pitchers' fastballs have a way of finding Quentin as his body parts hang over the plate. So do outfield walls and warning tracks as he dives and runs into them.

Yet when Quentin replaces the bandages with his Sox uniform these days, baseballs tend to suffer more damage than even he does.

The Sox' right fielder hit 2 home runs for the third time in his last four games, elevating his season total to 19.

Not surprisingly the Sox heated up when the weather and Quentin did. They enter the all-star break leading the American League Central after winning 25 of their last 30 games.

"I banged up the knee pretty badly," Quentin said in Comiskey Park's home clubhouse. "But I'm in the (designated hitter) role and still able to swing the bat."

Having a productive Quentin in the middle of the lineup helps compensate for the loss of Jermaine Dye and Jim Thome last off-season.

Coincidentally, Quentin was healthier earlier in the season, according to his layman's diagnosis anyway, but not hitting as much.

Quentin was the most baffling of all the Sox who slumped early. This guy usually hits if his body isn't a heap of bruised and battered bones.

"The team was scuffling, and the more we scuffled the more Carlos was trying," said Sox batting coach Greg Walker. "His swing was out of sync. Now it's grooved in. He found the feel he was looking for."

Walker says that Quentin's mechanics are more complicated than outsiders recognize. Not to get technical, he adds that the "main thing is the swing plane."

Walker disputes that Quentin was healthy the first couple of months of the season, saying, "He's a big kid - plays hard - gets hit by a lot of pitches - has been banged up all year."

Quentin attributes his earlier slump and recent streak to, well, essentially to this being baseball.

"It's a fragile game," he said.

In Quentin's mind, he was putting good swings on the ball during the first couple of months without much to show for it.

"It's black and white to you guys," Quentin said.

To him there are shades of gray over a 162-game season in which a minor matter can make a major difference.

"That's the beauty of (the game)," Quentin said.

The Sox don't play again until beginning a series Thursday at Minnesota, giving Quentin three days to heal what ails him.

Sox manager Ozzie Guillen looked toward the post-break and said, "It's easy to play when you're losing, but in a pennant race every day will be tougher and tougher and tougher."

For the White Sox the game is easier when Carlos Quentin is happy, healthy and hitting enough to complete the middle of the batting order.