Levine: White Sox Seeking A Surge

By Bruce Levine--

CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's time to step on the pedal and get in gear for a White Sox surge back.

This unpredictable White Sox squad has had many ebbs and flows to its season. Entering Monday at 38-38, now is the time to show their hand as to who they really are.

"We need to make a nice little push here before the All-Star break," third baseman Todd Frazier said. "We need to show that to the teams in our division and the American League."

Frazier is one of the White Sox's leaders who must help with the offensive resurgence. His team has won two series in a row for the first time in two months.

"We still have some power, and we certainly have some fight in us," Frazier said. "This should be a big finish coming up after the All-Star break. We have to just keep putting rallies together and keep battling. If we do that, we will be all right."

Much of the recent good play by Chicago has been washed away with Cleveland winning 10 straight games. The White Sox have won five of their last seven and still lost two games in the standings.

"We are just trying to win some ballgames," Frazier said. "There is nothing else to it. We see what is going on in our division. We see how we are doing, and we see Cleveland is on a hot streak. We just have to worry about us. If we keep winning, everything else will take care of itself."

With the Twins in town for a three-game series starting Tuesday night, anything short of winning this series will be a big disappointment for the White Sox. They have won six straight from Minnesota in 2016.

Chicago must also turn around a bad trend in the division, having lost 13 of the last 15 games against AL Central opponents.

"We are a.500 team right now," Jose Abreu said through a translator. "That is not all bad. We of course started the season very hot. We certainly struggled the last two months. Right now, we are back to even. That shows we have battled back and are able to survive. The last two series have been good. We must continue to play hard. I think we have a very good team. We can do better than we have the rest of the season."

The recent solid play of the team is based on more run production and solid defense. Chicago has hit .304 in the last seven games and also leads the AL in fielding percentage at .988 entering Tuesday.

"We are swinging the bat a little bit," manager Robin Ventura said. "That always makes your team look better. We are playing some defense right now. We are doing smaller things to help us win too. It's been nice to see where we were maybe a month ago, and what we are doing now."

The White Sox are within 3.5 games of the second wild-card spot right now.

"Cleveland is playing good baseball, so we have to focus on we are doing," Ventura said. "We can only control what we are doing -- effort and what we are doing, I like where we are at."

Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.