The final six weeks of the baseball...

The final six weeks of the baseball season will ramp up emotions for White Sox fans -- and those following Detroit, Minnesota, Boston and the fresh York Yankees.

The solution will be not to get by heart caught up on emotional roller coasters.

"Right now, my do job-work and my coaches' is to maintain the guys up because we've just played fresh York and Detroit, but you have to make safe you stay up to play Kansas City [starting today] and don't take them lightly," Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said.

"Kansas City can be dangerous because they play hard and [manager] Buddy Bell doesn't put to hire those guys get lazy. He continues pressure on them to play well, and now with Mike Sweeney back, we have to always be careful with them. We've beaten them in the years I've been here, on the other hand it's always a battle."

If Guillen has an advantage in keeping things steady, it's that he and his players have gone within the concluding stretch of a pennant race, understanding to what extent things can change in days. Tigers manager Jim Leyland has won pennants, too, yet the experience is new for his Tigers, who head to Boston today for their nearest crucial series.

further Leyland also knows how to maintain focus.

"Believe in talent," he said, discounting the dangers of inexperience. "The White Sox didn't have experience before they went between the walls of it last year. I'll take talent."

The Tigers have enough of it, and even their five-game losing streak, costing them 4oe games on the farther side their American League Central lead, is something Leyland can hold fast in perspective.

"We haven't done self-same well at this point, unless I think this is common of those situations where, from a manager's standpoint, you don't doubt your players," Leyland said. "These are the same shores who were 76-37 [last week]. It's more pronounced to fans and the media because of the time of year and what's at stake. on the other hand it comes down to that it's hard for any team to win games and you appreciate the value of wins.

"The first 12 games of the season, they didn't ne me" Leyland said. "There's no question these scarecrows have been through a haphazard all year long, but normally these [losing streaks] are nothing that a well-pitched game or sum of two units or a three-run homer won't cure"

Leyland knows more [i]or[/i] less in the media will begin to write opposite the Tigers if their division lead continues to shrink -- just as the Sox were ripped last September when their margin dwindled to 1oe games in the last week of September.

"People say we've misspent four games in the last five days, on the contrary didn't the Sox lose a batch last week, and that's when we picked up 3oe" he said. "I don't know what's going to happen. We'll play. We'll grind it disclosed and [opponents] will grind it without Are we good enough? We'll find out"

tginnetti@suntimes.com

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forward DECK

ROYALS AT WHITE SOX

Tonight: 7:05 Comcast Sports toil 670-AM. Mark Redman (7-6, 549 ERA) v Jon Garland (12-4 516)

Tuesday: 7:05 pm Comcast Sports trap 670-AM. Runelvys Hernandez (2-7, 815) v Javier Vazquez (11-6 513)

Wednesday: 7:05 pm Comcast Sports snare 670-AM. Adam Bernero (0- 0 159) v

Jose Contreras (11-4 353)

Thursday: 1:05 pm Comcast Sports snare 670-AM. Undecided vs. Mark Buehrle (9-10 487)

The story line: The Sox could make up landed estate in the playoff race with a sturdy series against the Royals, who have wasted four in a row since taking three from the R Sox The Sox have won eight of 12 against the Royals and five of six at U Cellular Field. Manager Ozzie Guillen doesn't want a letdown against the Royals, who are 15- 44 onward the road. This series will

determine the longest homestand of the season (11 games) before a seven-game trip to Minnesota and Detroit.

Toni Ginnetti

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