Is this Sox' offense up to the task?

Saturday was not the White Sox' most productive day.

Early they failed to acquire the big bat that would fill out their offense. Later they lost 6-2 to a pretty good Oakland A's pitcher in Comiskey Park.

Coincidence, perhaps?

Now, neither the lack of a deal during the day or lack of hitting at night is cause for alarm. The Sox are 13 games over .500 and still lead the American League Central despite their 12-game home winning streak ending.

But - yes, there is a but - the Sox' offense continues to be suspect. That's why general manager Kenny Williams was, as he says, kicking tires to see if a slugger fell out.

Houston's Lance Berkman declined to come to Chicago and wound up with the Yankees. The Nationals held on to Adam Dunn. Manny Ramirez remains with the Dodgers.

Williams shouldn't be criticized for this. Sometimes there simply is no fit for a trade.

"It was very quiet (Saturday) morning," Williams said. "Most of the things reported were false."

Sox manager Ozzie Guillen always wants more pitching, so before Saturday's nonwaiver trade deadline Williams dealt for starting pitcher Edwin Jackson.

Williams wasn't desperate to add anybody anyway. Nor was he desperate to subtract anybody, as the Cubs were in dealing Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot to the Dodgers.

The roster game isn't over yet, either. Last year Williams acquired Alex Rios in a waiver transaction and will look for somebody this August, too.

"I hope there's a thing or two there that materializes," Williams said. "You never know."

Otherwise the Sox will attempt to make the playoffs with the offense as currently constituted. Then if successful they'll try to match up against Yankees, Rays and Rangers pitching in October.

(Oh, wait, there's also the imminent arrival of Mark Teahen from the disabled list if that rocks your Sox' socks off.)

Anyway, one impression circulating about the Sox is that they can beat bad teams with mediocre pitching but have a hard time against even mediocre teams with better pitching.

Oakland and Dallas Braden are in the latter category. His record is only 6-7, but he has a 3.63 ERA and pitched a perfect game earlier this season.

Now Braden has stymied Sox hitters on consecutive weekends.

"(Braden) was outstanding," Guillen said. "I would have bet we would have a better game against him (Saturday) than in Oakland. I don't take anything away from him. It's all about pitching."

Well, it's also about having good enough hitting to hit quality pitching, and the Sox did beat a really good one last Monday in Seattle's Felix Hernandez.

The question during the pennant race's stretch run is which Sox' offense will stand up: The one that beat Hernandez or the one that couldn't beat Braden?

It sure would be nice to have Dunn in the lineup against the A's or anybody else to complement Paul Konerko.

"All I can say is if we felt any impact players were on the market, that's who we were going for," Williams said. "We kicked the tires, but obviously didn't kick them hard enough."

That leaves the question of whether the White Sox have enough hitting to kick around good pitching the next few months.

mimrem@dailyherald.com