Rongey: The White Sox welcome improvement needs to continue

Presumably, if you're reading this, you're a lifelong baseball fan. And if you're a lifelong baseball fan, you're no stranger to annoyingly slow starts for your baseball team, especially if that team is the White Sox. And if you've been annoyed by them before, you've probably also learned that often a slow start isn't necessarily the indication of a rotten season to come.

But I know it's difficult to forget that when you invest as much of yourself into your team as you probably do, so it's good to be reminded.

I know I wrote recently that things in a baseball season can, and do, change in a hurry — and after a miserable trip to Baltimore and Minnesota, it looked like we were in for one awful ride. However, since then things have changed for the better and it's easy to forget that that road trip didn't end so long ago.

The question is, are these changes permanent? Let's look at the month of May compared to April.

For anyone following, it's well-known that the Sox got off to maybe the worst offensive start in baseball — which was a surprise considering the perfectly capable 2014 offense and the fact the majority of those starters returned for this year, joined by the Melky Cabrera and Adam LaRoche upgrades.

There was no real reason to think a lineup that was sixth in the American League in OPS would be any worse the following year. But in April, only the Rangers were poorer in that category.

This month, though, the Sox are more than a full run-per-game better, the OPS is nearly 130 points higher and they've already hit more home runs in two weeks than they did all of last month. They've also shown the ability to come back from significant deficits to steal wins, as evidenced Friday in a 7-6 comeback against the Athletics at the Coliseum.

I've been saying that I'd like to see the Sox keep up the winning for about two weeks before I'd start to consider that maybe the about-face is finally happening. Well, after taking three straight series and going into the weekend with a win in Oakland, we're at that two-week mark.

I think what we're seeing now is more like the team that was intended, but it's difficult to say whether what we're witnessing is here to stay. There is still plenty of room for progress with starting pitching, despite recent terrific outings from Chris Sale and Jose Quintana (starters' team ERA was second worst in the majors last month, but is showing more than a full run improvement in May).

Obviously defensive improvement is needed as well, after an especially horrid April. The Sox are hoping that the introduction of Carlos Sanchez at 2nd base will diminish some of the defensive problems on the infield.

I think it's OK to suggest this team might now be turning in the right direction, but I'll move the goal posts and hope for another two weeks like this before I'm fully convinced.

But for the time being, we can enjoy what they've been showing us lately and hope they make that one awful road trip a distant memory.

• Chris Rongey is the host of the White Sox pregame and postgame shows on WSCR 670-AM The Score. Follow him on Twitter@ChrisRongey and at chrisrongey.com.