Levine: White Sox Homestand Critical In Standings, Assessing Needs
By Bruce Levine--
CHICAGO (CBS) -- This 10-game homestand that includes seven games against AL Central foes may determine how long the Chicago White Sox can maintain or how much they pad their division lead.
Chicago has played the fewest home games (16) in baseball to this point, with 23 of its first 39 games coming away from U.S. Cellular Field. The White Sox are coming off their worst road trip, having gone 2-4 and only winning the opening game in series against the Rangers and Yankees.
Lately, two major concerns have popped up for the White Sox: rotational depth and the bullpen.
"Every part of the schedule and every team is tough to me," manager Robin Ventura said before Wednesday night's home game against Houston. "Every lineup you face has its own challenges. The main focus for us is to show up every day and get after it."
The biggest internal challenge is the depth of the rotation. On Tuesday, the White Sox fell in 11 innings to the Astros, with left-hander going six innings and allowing three runs. That effort was improved over Rodon's recent performance, during which he'd struggled.
Behind ace Chris Sale (8-0, 1.67 ERA) and left-hander Jose Quintana (5-2, 1.54), the White Sox need more consistency from Rodon (1-4, 4.73), Mat Latos (5-0, 3.40) and the fifth starter spot that's featured a rotating cast of characters.
Specifically, Latos and the No. 5 starter(s) have left too many innings on the table for the bullpen to finish in recent outings, and a decrease in the success of relievers has followed.
"We got a big boost when Sale went the distance the last time out," Ventura said. "That trip into Texas can be a rough on a bullpen. You know a lot of runs will be scored there. We feel pretty good where we are at with the pen."
The White Sox hold a 3.5-game lead over the Indians entering play Wednesday and want to protect and add on to that advantage.
"Those games in the division are always really important," catcher Alex Avila said. "One thing in my mind, in order to win a division you must beat the teams in your division. Those series early in the year are as important as any late season matchup. The key to all of that is continuing to play good baseball. You can talk about series to series things all you want. You must play with the same intelligence and fire that got you the lead every game after that. We have good pitching that has kept us in a lot of games. The pitching has been supported by outstanding defense."
On Tuesday, general manager Rick Hahn made clear that he's ready to pull the trigger on any trade, big or small, that makes sense at any time. From a player's perspective, that kind of proactive talk from the front office is consistent with the offseason pursuit of hungry players ready to win.
"Without a doubt," third baseman Todd Frazier said of whether he liked Hahn's continued search for more help. "I know he believes in us or he wouldn't have made all those moves in the offseason. He wants to win as badly as we do. He has been doing a great job of getting us the players we need. He is probably in his office right now focusing on what we need and don't need. Kudos to him."
The White Sox have nine games left on this homestand -- two against the Astros, three against the Royals and four with the Indians -- and their success and resiliency will hint at how competitive they'll be in the long run and what more Hahn needs to add.
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
