Chicago White Sox are still aiming for ‘a significant step forward’ to make up ground in the AL Central – The Denver Post

The Chicago White Sox understood June would present some major tests as they tried to climb back into contention.

“We looked at the schedule going into Yankee Stadium and then playing a good Marlins team and going to Dodger Stadium and Seattle and now playing a really good Texas team that we knew this path was going to be difficult for this two-, three-to-four-week stretch leading up to the (All-Star) break, and we’ve been a tick under .500 in that stretch,” general manager Rick Hahn said before Monday’s game against the Rangers at Guaranteed Rate Field.

“So it hasn’t been devastating, but it absolutely hasn’t been a significant step forward.”

The Sox are still aiming to take those steps.

Since the first game of that Yankees series on June 6, the Sox are 5-8.

With Monday’s 5-2 loss to the Rangers, they are 12 games under .500 (31-43). The Sox are in fourth place, but still just 5 1/2 games out of first in the American League Central. There is no team in the division with a winning record.

Since going 8-21 in March and April, the Sox are 23-22.

“You can’t remove April, that’s not how this works,” Hahn said. “We have been a tick above .500 since that rotten start. That’s fine, but that’s not what we need to be if we’re going to make a run in this division and feel like we have a chance to do damage in October. It’s been OK, but it hasn’t been as impactful as we would hope.”

With how the division is playing out, the Sox could be facing some interesting decisions ahead of the Aug. 1 trade deadline.

“The goals have always been higher than just making the playoffs,” Hahn said. “I will say that given our performance so far, our only way in is through winning the division, which based on the performance relative to the rest of the division this year, everything’s been a little bit down, which makes that more attainable than a wild-card spot.

“If we’re able to turn this around and get ourselves in a position to win this division — given that we are currently 11 under, we are obviously going to be playing pretty damn good baseball for the final two, three months of the season, which would give us reason to believe that the postseason performance could be better.

“Making the playoffs is important. But the goals are loftier than that. And when we judge ultimately what happens as we get much closer to Aug. 1 than we are now, how we project our ability to not only win the division but to make an impact in October is going to factor in.”

Manager Pedro Grifol said everyone in the clubhouse “thinks the division is up for the taking.”

“Nobody seems to be running away with it, five-and-a-half games back is certainly a number that’s attainable,” Grifol said Monday. “Maybe three or four weeks ago we were nine-and-a-half back, we’ve made up four games and we haven’t played our best baseball. So we’re extremely optimistic this thing will click for us.

“We’ve played a lot of close games, a lot of leverage games. Where a hit or walk here or there and we’re three or four games better. Everybody in that clubhouse is optimistic that we’re going to put this together and we’re in striking distance of where we want to be. Should we be better? Probably, but we’re not. This is where we are. We can only look at where we’re at, continue to work and play baseball the way we feel like we can.”

The Sox are working to avoid having April serve as the defining month of this season.

“I hope we’re not proving the old baseball axiom that you can’t win a pennant in April, but you can lose one,” Hahn said. “We’re 11 under and had a 10-game losing streak. Remove that and all of a sudden we’re right in the thick of things. But that’s not how it works. The fact out of those 10 games four of them were real close or we were leading late or should have won those games, we don’t get those back.

“We’re going to have to make those up on our own going forward. Thus far, over this tough stretch of the schedule, yeah we’ve treaded water but we’ve yet to really go on that run. We’re going to need that run here in the next few weeks before we get up against Aug. 1.”

Sox make 4 roster moves

The Sox announced four roster moves before Monday’s game, placing starter Lance Lynn on the bereavement list and infielder Romy Gonzalez on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to Sunday) with right shoulder inflammation. The Sox recalled pitcher Nick Padilla from Triple-A Charlotte and infielder José Rodríguez made the jump from Double-A Birmingham to the majors.

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