Levine: Central Division Record Sinks White Sox
By Bruce Levine--
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago White Sox's chances of playoff baseball have been sunk over the past four seasons by poor records in the American League Central. Show me a team that loses in their division, and I will promise you will be looking at a second-division ball club.
Teams typically play 76 divisional games per season, which is nearly half their 162-game slate. Since the White Sox's last winning season, in 2012, they're a combined 55 games under .500 in the AL Central. They were 26-50 in 2013, 33-43 in 2014, 32-44 in 2015 and are 20-29 so far this season in the division.
The White Sox entered Sunday with a 62-66 mark and play their next 21 games against AL Central foes. Of those 21 games, 17 are against the Indians, Tigers and Royals, three club in the pennant and wild-card race.
"You just have to win those games," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "We have not played that well in the division. You somehow have to find a way to reverse that and find the way to win those games. We lost some late in the games. In others we did not score enough runs. We have tough teams in the division that can pitch; Detroit offensively is a very tough team. We have to stop them and score just like they do."
Chicago will play Detroit six times, Kansas City seven times and Cleveland seven times in the final weeks of the season. Ventura isn't ready to wave the white flag of being a spoiler just yet.
"When you get to the last week of the season, you may think more that way," Ventura said. "Right now you continue to focus on what you are doing as team. We are not in the mode of trying to ruin somebody else's party."
Going forward, the up-and-down White Sox haven't gotten over the hump from the offensive side of the ledger, as 2016 marks the second straight season they will finish in the bottom portion of the league in runs scored.
"Baseball is played over a period of time," Ventura said. "The teams that are most consistent in what they do have better records. I believe that has been our problem. We have been inconsistent and not able to sustain it."
The Chicago White Sox are 13th in runs scored in the American League and rank 25th out of 30 in baseball at with 4.08 runs per game.
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.
