Ozzie when asked, yesterday, if the team can make a run:
"Right now, July 21, nope. Nope. I don't see it," said Guillen, when asked Saturday if his team has what it takes to put together a sustained victory run to legitimately chase Detroit, Cleveland and Minnesota. "It's going to be tough. You have to be honest, because we are facing pretty good ballclubs, guys fighting for first place. To make a run, we have to be perfect every day. And I don't see us being perfect every day. We cannot make anything against us, because we will pay."
Today Ozzie said he only meant that the team has no room for error:
Guillen went on to clarify his point Sunday morning. It's not that the White Sox weren't trying to win, or that he was giving up, but in the troublesome situation they currently reside, there's little room for error with a team who makes far too many contributions to its own defeats.
Garland's take? The team lacks agressiveness:
"You ask those [players], and we're a fighter that's still standing, but we can't get knocked down once. We have to be up for two months. That's what I expect. That's what I want. But we continue like [the 11-game road trip], and sorry guys, it ain't going to happen."
Sticking with Guillen's fighter metaphor, the White Sox currently are receiving their second or third standing-eight count, and the referee is about two ticks away from declaring this season-long bout a knockout. By Garland's estimation, though, the South Siders still lack the aggressiveness to get back into the fight.
Tough to grind it out? But Kenny went out and got the ultimate grinder.
"Honestly, I don't think we've been attacking the game. We've been sitting back and letting things happen to us instead of going out and making them happen. Once you start heading the way we've headed, and things aren't going your way, or you do the right things and they still don't go your way, it's tough to grind it out. We just have to let it go and prepare for the next day."