Williams: 'We're still in it to win it'

After trading Jim Thome and Jose Contreras on Monday night, White Sox general manager Kenny Williams went underground.

Not literally, but Williams stayed silent until Friday while keeping a close eye on how the Sox dealt with the dual deals.

"I wanted to see the reaction of my players," Williams said. "I wanted to see who would step up as leaders and tell their teammates, tell the public, that if not for our recent play, if not for us putting ourselves in this position, then we don't put management in position to do these things."

Satisfied with what he read and heard, Williams had plenty to say before the White Sox buried the Red Sox 12-2 at U.S. Cellular Field. It was manager Ozzie Guillen's 500th career win.

Most important, Williams said trading Thome to the Dodgers and Contreras to the Rockies was not akin to waving the dreaded white flag.

"We're still in it to win it," Williams said.

The White Sox (67-69) kept pace with the first-place Tigers with their third straight win, but they are still 7 games off the pace with 26 to play.

The Sox are 1 game behind the second-place Twins.

Williams is looking toward the final two weekends of the season, when the White Sox play 6 games against Detroit.

"We've got unfinished business here, and I'm hoping like (heck) we can get to within 4, 31/2 games going into the games against Detroit because Detroit's got to play us six times, and if I'm not mistaken, they've got to play Minnesota seven times," Williams said. "So there's a lot that can happen here this month of September, and no, there's no quit or giving up."

After going 1-8 at Boston, New York and Minnesota, the Sox were trailing the Twins 2-0 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning at the Metrodome on Wednesday before rallying for an improbable 4-2 win against all-star closer Joe Nathan.

"What I do know is we have the talent," Williams said. "We have the talent to run off a streak. We have not done that all year, seemingly, but we certainly have the talent to do that.

"So what's so implausible about us going 8-2 over our 10 next games and one of the other clubs, or both of the other clubs, going 5-5?"

The White Sox are trying to focus on the game at hand, and they fared well in that department Friday while piling up 20 hits.

"The Red Sox are a top team in baseball," said second baseman Chris Getz, who matched his career high with 4 hits. "To get a nice win like we did today, hopefully we can get it rolling."

Starter Freddy Garcia (1-2) pitched 6 innings and allowed 1 run on 7 hits to win for the first time since Sept. 17 of last season.

"Freddy knows how to pitch," Guillen said. "I think the bats finally came around. Hopefully, we can carry that all month. It was nice. We haven't had a game like that all year."

<p class="factboxheadblack">Scot Gregor's game tracker</p> <p class="News">White Sox 12, Red Sox 2</p> <p class="News"><b>Evening the score:</b> The White Sox, who lost three of four at Boston in late August, scored their most runs in a game vs. the Red Sox since July 22, 2001, and had their most hits (20) vs. Boston since April 24, 1980.</p> <p class="News"><b>Old times:</b> Freddy Garcia won his first game for the White Sox since Sept. 29, 2006.</p> <p class="News"><b>Nice debut:</b> In his first major-league appearance, Daniel Hudson pitched 2 scoreless innings.</p> <div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=319201">Sox not planning to shut down Peavy<span class="date"> [9/4/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>