Red-hot Sox show no signs of cooling off against Cubs

The White Sox are hotter than ... Carlos Zambrano's temper? Yeah, that sounds about right.

As the Cubs' tightly wound starting pitcher was losing it at U.S. Cellular Field on Friday afternoon, the Sox were calmly winning - again.

"You just try to keep going," catcher A.J. Pierzynski said after the White Sox dumped the Cubs 6-0 for their 10th straight win. "The bottom line is you don't think about it. Obviously, we know we're playing well and keep trying to do it. Whether it's pitching or hitting, everything seems to be going right now. That's what you like. That's what we were expected to be from Day 1 this season, and hopefully we can keep it going."

The Sox have already gone a long way; the 10-game streak is the longest since May 18-26, 1976. That's the same year captain Paul Konerko was born.

While he was more flustered than most by the way the White Sox floundered over the first two months of the season, manager Ozzie Guillen never lost faith.

"I was sitting here in April, I was sitting here in May, I was sitting here in June, and I remember I said the worst part of this thing is every time I come to the ballpark I believe those guys are going to win," Guillen said. "And I go home crying. From the beginning, I always believed in the players because they've got talent, they've got credentials and they never gave up on themselves.

"We went through the tough times and we took it like men. We suffered together, everybody was behind each other, and that's what you do when you're down. When you're down, you help each other up. A lot of people had doubts about this team turning around, I never did. I never did."

Coming out of spring training, Guillen said he thought the White Sox were a lock to succeed because of the starting rotation.

Freddy Garcia and John Danks were pretty good from the beginning, but Jake Peavy, Mark Buehrle and Gavin Floyd all struggled.

Over the last 16 games - the Sox have won 14 - the rotation is 12-1 with a 1.90 ERA and 15 quality outings.

"We're just hitting on all cylinders," Peavy said after pitching 7 innings Friday while running his scoreless streak to 21 innings. "The starting pitching, I think, is where everything starts. Not to take anything away from anything we've done over the past 10 days or the past 21/2-3 weeks, offensively or defensively. If you don't pitch you don't win and I think the model that we came out of spring training, thinking what we were going to be, is built around a good bullpen, but really good starting pitching and giving us a chance to win just about any game.

"Starting pitching is obviously where it starts and sets the tone, but from timely hitting to outstanding defense, just a complete team effort."

How long can it last? The way the White Sox are performing in every phase of the game, who knows?

"When you are winning consistently, you keep winning until you start getting in a bad rut or bad spot," second baseman Gordon Beckham said. "When we do lose - and it probably will happen - we'll just jump right back on and show up again. We've been showing up every day the same way. It has been tough but we've shown up the same way and we're starting to play well and it has been a lot of fun."