Time running out, so Guillen looks ahead
On Tuesday, the White Sox rallied from a 3-0 deficit and beat the Mariners 6-3.
Faced with a similar must-win situation Wednesday night at Seattle, the Sox couldn't dig themselves out of another hole.
Not only did the White Sox lost 4-1 at Safeco Field, they fell 61/2 games behind the first-place Detroit Tigers in the AL Central. With just 16 games to play, the Sox also trail the second-place Minnesota Twins by 2 games.
Maybe that's why Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was asked about 2010 before the middle game of the Mariners series.
"With our pitching staff, we have four (starters) for sure that are going to be good," Guillen told reporters.
They would be Mark Buehrle, Jake Peavy, Gavin Floyd and John Danks.
"And hopefully Freddy (Garcia) fits in the mix and helps us," Guillen said.
The White Sox came into Wednesday's game with the second-lowest ERA (4.23) among AL starters. The Mariners (4.01) ranked first, so that blows a pair of holes in the theory that quality starting pitching automatically gets you to the playoffs.
The Sox have been crippled by shaky defense all season, and the offense is hitting just .116 (8-for-69) with runners in scoring position over the last nine games.
Shoring up the defense and getting some consistent clutch hitting are keys for 2010.
"We've got a couple guys in the infield coming back," Guillen said. "Hopefully we're going to have (Alex) Rios every day, and hopefully (Carlos) Quentin has a better year.
"I feel good about next year. But we have to work every day to play the way we want to play."
The White Sox didn't play well in any area Wednesday.
Floyd (11-11) lasted 3 innings, his shortest outing of the season. The right-hander allowed 3 runs on 4 hits before making the early exit with a sore hip.
As for the Sox' offense, they managed just 1 run over 8 innings against Mariners starter Ryan Rowland-Smith (4-3). The left-hander was working on a shutout until Gordon Beckham homered with one out in the eighth.
Seattle got all of the offense it needed in the first inning. Ichiro Suzuki led off with a double and scored on Jose Lopez's one-out double.
Adrian Beltre's two-out single scored Lopez.
<p class="factboxheadblack">Scot Gregor's game tracker</p> <p class="News">Mariners 4, White Sox 1</p> <p class="News"><b>Short stay:</b> Gavin Floyd lasted just 3 innings before leaving with a sore hip. In his shortest outing of the season, Floyd allowed 3 runs on 4 hits.</p> <p class="News"><b>Rocky road:</b> Floyd is 5-8 with a 5.47 ERA on the road. At U.S. Cellular Field, he is 6-3 with a 2.47 ERA.</p> <p class="News"><b>Rios sighting:</b> Coming in with 1 hit in his last 20 at-bats, Alex Rios was 2-for-3. Another slumping hitter, Jermaine Dye, was 2-for-4.</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=322033">Sox say bye to Colon<span class="date"> [9/16/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>