The first one is it must be at least .500.
Since the White Sox can’t claim that distinction, all talk of catching the Minnesota Twins and still being in the “hunt” can cease, at least until they return to the break-even point.
That’s going to take at least a couple of more days after Monday’s 7-0 loss to the Detroit Tigers.
The Sox fell two games below .500 for the first time this season and the first time since July 20, 2003.
At this point, the way the Sox are going, it matters little what the Twins do. Monday was the fifth loss in a row and sixth in the last seven games. There are 40 games left.
“Mathematically we’re still in it,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “The way we’re playing, it’s going to be hard for us to come back. We have to know where we are at this point.”
Jeremy Bonderman (7-10) tossed a shutout with 14 strikeouts, the most by a Tigers pitcher since Mickey Lolich fanned 15 Boston Red Sox in 1972. It was his first career shutout.
The Tigers have won seven of the first 11 games against the Sox and moved to within two games of them for third place in the Central Division.
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It was Bonderman’s fourth start of the season against the Sox and the first time he has lasted past three innings. The first time he was ejected in the second inning, the second he was hit on the knee by a line drive in the second inning and the third he was shelled for six runs in three-plus innings.
“He was completely different tonight,” said shortstop Jose Valentin, who struck out three times and made an error. “His slider was unhittable.”
Bonderman needed just 114 pitches to go the distance.
“He threw the ball outstanding,” Guillen said. “One of the best against us this season.”
Sox starter Jose Contreras (11-6) needed 110 pitches to get through five innings. While Bonderman set a career high for strikeouts, Contreras set a career high with seven walks.
“I fell behind a lot,” Contreras said. “When I wanted to throw strikes, they were up and they hit them.”
No one will publicly concede the postseason, but there must be a sense of reality seeping into the Sox’s clubhouse.
“It’s going to be difficult,” Contreras admitted. “But I feel like the team is OK. We’ll keep battling and see what happens.”
Guillen said he planned to shake things up.
“We’re not in good shape at all,” he said. He said he’s going to “play people with more enthusiasm.”
Monday was a disaster from the start. The Tigers scored two runs in the second, three more in the fourth?two on a home run by Carlos Guillen?and two in the seventh.
Bonderman had at least one strikeout in every inning except the fifth. Every Sox hitter fanned at least once except Juan Uribe, who had two of the team’s seven hits. They only had as many as two baserunners in an inning in the eighth and ninth, and both times Bonderman got a strikeout to end the threat.
“We didn’t pitch good, we didn’t play good defense and we didn’t hit,” Guillen said.
Guillen stressed again before the game that this was to be a make-or-break week for the Sox, with three games here and four in Cleveland.
“The way we started makes you wonder about what we can do,” he said.