White Sox Shaky in Another Loss

All year long, they could do almost nothing wrong. Now, the Chicago White Sox can hardly do anything right -- and they could be in trouble.

“We’re playing lousy baseball on the bases, pitching, everything,” Manager Ozzie Guillen said Thursday after the Kansas City Royals emerged with a 7-5 win over the mistake-prone White Sox at Kansas City, Mo. “There’s no doubt about it. We really flat-out stink. It’s not the same team I’ve been watching all year.”

The White Sox have lost six of seven, including consecutive setbacks against a Kansas City team that has the worst record in the majors. Their lead over Cleveland in the Central Division that stood at 9 1/2 games on Sept. 7 has shrunk to 4 1/2 .

The White Sox committed two costly baserunning blunders and gave up a season-high eight doubles to the Royals, who lost to Chicago the first 10 times they played this year. It was also another shaky outing for Mark Buehrle (15-8), who is 5-5 in the second half of the season.

“Ever since the All-Star break, it seems like I haven’t had too many good games. It’s frustrating,” said Buehrle. “We’ve still got six games with Cleveland. And the way that they’re playing, they could sweep us right now.”

The White Sox held a seemingly commanding 15-game lead as late as Aug. 1. The Indians haven’t been this close since April 20.

New York 9, Tampa Bay 5 -- Alex Rodriguez hit his 42nd home run and Robinson Cano erased a four-run deficit with a grand slam, helping Aaron Small and the Yankees rally to win at St. Petersburg, Fla. Small (8-0) became the first pitcher to win his first eight decisions with the Yankees since Doug Bird in 1980 and ’81.

Texas 4, Seattle 3 -- Michael Young reached 200 hits for the third straight season and Gary Matthews Jr. had a tiebreaking sacrifice fly at Arlington, Texas.