Will Home Be Where The Wins Are?

On Tuesday night the White Sox will start a series with their division rivals, the Minnesota Twins, at U.S. Cellular Field.  They're probably not thrilled to be coming into a series against a team that gives them fits in their current state, but odds are that they'll be thrilled to be anywhere but on the road.

With their 3-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday afternoon, the White Sox completed a seven-game road trip that saw them win only once.  The lost two of three in Cleveland, and then went to Toronto where they lost four straight against the best team in the American League at the moment.

Obviously, it was a horrible road trip for the Sox.  They're now 15-22 on the season, and 5.5 games behind the Detroit Tigers.  Of course, it wasn't just this road trip that was horrible for the Sox.  On the season they're only 7-14 when they venture outside of Chicago's borders.

During their most recent seven-game excursion, the Sox were outscored by Cleveland and Toronto 38-19.  On the season the Sox have been outscored 110-88.  Not that they're much better at home, where they've compiled an 8-8 mark and have only been outscored 69-56.

The truth is that no matter where the White Sox play, be it The Cell, Toronto, Cleveland, the moon, they're just not a very good baseball team at the moment.  Hawk Harrelson described them as "a good team that's playing really bad" during today's broadcast.  How a good team can play really bad for nearly two months, we're not entirely sure, but we'll just take Hawk's word for it for now.

If this team does have a chance to back up Hawk's theory, though, now would be the time to start doing so.  If some home-cooking is all this team needs, there is no better time than now to turn things around.  The weather is finally starting to warm up here in Chicago, and when the weather warms up, traditionally, so do the White Sox.

They'll be able to take advantage of the nice weather this week after starting a six-game homestand against the Twins and Pirates on Tuesday through Sunday before heading out on another road trip.   After they return from that things will really set up for the team.

June will not only bring splended weather -- fingers crossed -- but it also brings a home-heavy slate to the Sox schedule.  Seventeen of the Sox' 28 games in June will be played in U.S. Cellular Field, including 17 of their next 23 games starting on Tuesday.

So if there's ever going to be a stretch this season when this team starts to figure things out and get off their butts, now will be the time to do it.  If not and it's going to be a very, very long summer.

Along with writing for NBCCHICAGO.com, Tom Fornelli can also be found contributing at FanHouse, SPORTSbyBROOKS, and his own Chicago sports blog Foul Balls.