Surprise! White Sox swept again by divisional opponent

The winning stops for the White Sox whenever they play a AL Central opponent, especially if they happen to be playing that opponent on the road.

A few days ago, there was actually some optimism that the Sox could pull their record up to .500 and maybe salvage a winning season. They had a 6-3 homestand, and they looked good in taking three out of four games from the wild-card contending Seattle Mariners over the weekend.

Consider those good vibes erased, however, after the Sox (63-69) got swept in a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers.

Again.

Since I last blogged, the Sox dropped two games in a 24-hour span. They blew a 3-0 lead on Tuesday night and ended up losing 8-4. On Wednesday afternoon, Chris Sale and Justin Verlander locked up in a entertaining pitcher's duel. Neither man figured in the decision. Sale took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the eighth, but Detroit scored a two-out run to take Verlander off the hook. The Tigers then won, 3-2, on a sacrifice fly against David Robertson in the ninth.

The Sox had at least a two-run lead at some point in all three games in Detroit. They lost them all.

For the season, Chicago went 1-8 in its nine games at Detroit. Overall, the Sox are 3-18 in road games against AL Central opponents Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City. Even if you include home games, the Sox are a pathetic 11-29 against those three teams.

That poor record continues to befuddle, especially when you consider how well the Sox have done against contending teams in the AL East and AL West. They are a combined 26-19 against Texas, Toronto, Baltimore, Boston, Houston, Seattle and New York -- those seven clubs all have winning records, and the Sox have more than held their own.

However, the Sox are embarrassingly bad against the teams they most need to beat -- Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City. Divisional teams are always very familiar with one another, and that familiarity seems to help other teams but work against the Sox.

The only conclusion we can come to here is that the Sox are being out-scouted and out-coached, and somebody needs to be fired for it. If they were truly that talent-deficient, wouldn't they be losing against all or most of the good teams in the American League, as well? I believe so.