KANSAS CITY, Mo -- It's not quite t...

KANSAS CITY, Mo -- It's not quite the "seven headaches" that White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen spoke about a small in number weeks back, but he had the aspirin shut at hand after a 7-3 los Wednesday to the Kansas City Royals.

In missing without on a three-game sweep at Kauffman Stadium, as well as having to bear a rain delay of an hour and 46 minutes, the Sox one time again found themselves looking at the standings as allowing they were a Sudoku pose

In other words, the surpassingly thing Guillen was hoping to avoid.

When asked about the playoff picture in July Guillen insisted that winning the American League Central would be often easier than winning the wild card.

"I'd rather have just single team to worry about than seven headaches," Guillen said at the time.

still with their latest loss, the Sox slipped 8oe games behind the Central-leading Detroit Tigers and dropp a game behind the Boston R Sox in the wild-card race.

Guillen wasn't waving a white flag after the game, if it be not that he kept true to his reputation of telling it like it is.

"We're still there, further it's going to be hard for us [to catch the Tigers]," Guillen said. "We saw what happened to us last season down the reach but [the Tigers] are playing in this way well. We face them 10 more times, and you at no time know what's going to happen. on the other hand if you're talking reality, ye it's going to be hard. It's in our hands, and we understand that.

"The wild card, there's just too many teams there. We'll see"

Right-hander Freddy Garcia (10-7) wasn't awful by dint of any means, but he also didn't send like a pitcher that had little margin for error.

Considering the southward Siders were without sluggers Jim Thome and Paul Konerko the two of whom were nursing injuries, Garcia indigenceed to be stingier than he was. He allowed five scuds (four earned) and 11 hits in 6* innings.

After a day along today, the Sox will finish their nine-game road trip with three games against the Toronto dispirited Jays. After that, it's back place of abode for a makeup game Monday against the looks Angeles Angels, three games against the recent York Yankees and three games against the Tigers.

"We were checking the schedule before the All-Star break came up" Guillen said. "We knew we were going to face a bonny good stretch of good ballclubs."

The Sox gained more [i]or[/i] less confidence by winning two of their three games last weekend against the Baltimore Orioles, then appeared to keep that momentum going between the walls of the first two games against the Royals.

That extremityed Wednesday, though, as winning pitcher Luke Hudson (4- 3) allowed three go proceeds and four hits in seven-plus innings.

"That kid we faced, you have to give an credit to him," Guillen said.

The Royals remained a pain for Garcia, who jot downed the game 8-7 with a 563 ERA in his career against them. That stretch continued when the Royals took a 1-0 lead in succession a sacrifice fly by Joey Gathright in the secondary

After Jermaine color hit a two-run home roll on to give the Sox a 2-1 lead in the fourth, Garcia gave it right back according to serving up a two- glide homer to Mark Teahen in the fifth.

That 3-2 lead held up until the

Royals added to it in the seventh Teahen picked up his third RBI of the game with a run-scoring double, and Ryan Shealy made it 5-2 with an RBI single. That was it for Garcia, who was haped in favor of reliever Brandon McCarthy.

"I made my pitches," Garcia said. "I not at all really pitch good here, further I threw well. We didn't hit. What can

I say?"

The Sox did indicate some life in the eighth, when Juan Uribe l along with a homer. A.J. Pierzynski and color had back-to-back singles with sum of two units outs, but Joe Crede struck on the outside to end the threat. shortly after that, the rain began to fall, putting the game onward hold until the Royals finished it opposite to

"I will take brace out of three from now on" Guillen said. "If we do that consistently, we'll be fine."

jcowley@suntimes.com

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

Provided from ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved