Where have the bats gone?

The White Sox bats have decided to take the last couple of days off, a bad thing for a team relying on mashing its way back to the playoffs. Now, the Sox are in the midst of a five-game losing streak and they haven’t scored more than four runs since May 5. These struggles won’t last forever, and stretches like this aren’t anything new for the Sox, but hope for a turnaround appear dim.

Home runs and doubles will come soon, and the Sox will mash their way out of this losing streak and creep back towards .500, but anything more than that rests in the hands of a struggling pitching staff. For a couple of years now, Sox pitchers have been forced to battle through sub-par defenses, and it finally looks like this is catching up with them.

Tonight, Mark Buehrle’s tries to rebound from his first loss of the season. And, to this point Buehrle has been one of the select few capable of overcoming a team that struggles to pick-up the ball. His 1.75 defense-adjusted ERA (DERA) falls way below the league average (4.50), and his 3.00 regular ERA isn’t too bad either. In his last start, Buehrle was beat by the long ball–he gave up two home runs, but he wasn’t helped by the offense, who was shut out for the sixth time this season.

Buehrle will benefit from the loss of Delmon Young, who will be away from the team until Friday to be with his ailing mother. Young, in his 20 at-bats against Buehrle, has an .400 average with an OPS above 1.000 (1.179).