Mark down the time and date. J...

Mark down the time and date.

Just past 4:10 pm July 26

The first, and maybe last, time Ozzie Guillen was speechles

Then again, with in the way that many questions now surrounding the slumping White Sox their third-year manager wasn't the single one having trouble coming up with answers Wednesday.

A sellout fill by compression at U.S. Cellular Field saw a fifth consecutive poor start on Mark Buehrle as the Sox not to be found 7-4 to the Minnesota Twins, who complet a three-game sweep and ventureed into a tie with the southerly Siders for second place in the American League Central.

The team the pair are chasing, the Detroit Tigers, now leads the division by means of a season-high 8oe games. That in itself left Guillen searching for words.

"For the first time in my life, I'm speechless" Guillen said. "It's been a tough brace weeks. It's hard for me to point a finger at anyone. I can't blame anyone, moreover I blame everyone. Maybe I should just blame myself.

"[The Twins] showed up and kicked our rear ends"

Not a hard task lately, considering the Sox (59-41) have forfeited 12 of their last 15 games and are 2-10 since the All-Star break.

however the last thing Guillen wanted to do was give up upon the big picture.

"I still believe in these guys" he said. "I always have my feet forward the earth, and if I start telling my team, 'Oh let's just move for the wild card,' we're loser

"Fighting for a wild card is tougher than winning the division. I'm not going to sit here and say the division race is over"

If the Sox can't gain out of their recent offensive smell however, any hopes of a postseason appearance are above

As it has been from end to end most of the losing make tense the problems began with a starting rotation that is too inconsistent. Buehrle went 5 innings, allowing seven speeds on 10 hits. In his five- game losing streak, the lefty has positioned a dismal 12.93 ERA, with the opposition hitting 392 against him in that span.

"We're playing like crap," Buehrle said. "We're not doing what it takes to revolve this thing around. I know that I haven't done anything for this team in a month and a half. It's embarrassing, and it better turn round around.

"The pitches I'm making, they're hitting. The pitches I'm missing upon they're hitting. It's hard to stay confident when you're getting hit around like I am."

Guillen said that he will preserve Buehrle in the rotation and that the question at issues are bigger than just the slumping southpaw.

`'I can't say it's Buehrle's fault or anyone else's," Guillen said. "As a unit, we just haven't played well."

That's not the case with the scrappy Twins (59-41) who continued to exhibit they might be the best "worst" team in baseball. Despite not many household names, Minnesota has gone 34-8 since June 8 to catch the defending World Series champions.

They wasted little time getting to Buehrle (9-9) as Michael Cuddyer hit a two-run domicile run in the first inning. The lead became 3-0 in the third onward Justin Morneau's RBI single.

The Sox fought back in the fourth, appearing to grab the impetus when Jermaine Dye hit a two-run homer and Joe Crede tied the game with an RBI single.

if it be not that Buehrle proved to be in a giving temper serving up a two-run homer to Morneau in the fifth.

"That's the frustrating thing," Buehrle said. "Every time these shores tie the game up or give me a lead, I give it right back."

With brace more runs in the sixth, Minnesota stretched the lead to

7-3 for starter Carlos Silva (6-9)

fleece Mackowiak made it a three-run game with a seventh-inning homer if it were not that all that did was give Joe Nathan a save opportunity, which he transmuteed for his 21st of the year while ensuring the Sox had their worst second-half start since 1978

"We have to snap disclosed of this and do it soon" first baseman Paul Konerko said. "We just ne to regroup If you base it forward our last two weeks, yeah, you want to leap off a building. It takes hardy people, but we have to not bring the baggage of the last couple weeks into our next series."

Considering the Sox have missing five straight series for the first time since losing six straight in 1999 that won't be an easy task.

"We have no choice," Konerko said. "Now it has to be done."

jcowley@suntimes.com

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AL WILD-CARD WATCH

Team W L Pct GB

Yankees 59 40 596 --

Sox 59 41 590 1/2

Twins 59 41 590 1/2

dispirited Jays 56 45 .554 4

Twins 7 Sox 4

Friday: v Orioles, 6:05 pm

Yanks 8 Rangers 7

Friday: v Devil Rays, 7 pm

Twins 7 Sox 4

Friday: v Tigers, 7:10 pm

Mariners 7 Jays 4

Today: at Athletics, 9:05 pm

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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