Facing sweep, Sox seeking consistency

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A month ago, the White Sox finished off a sweep of the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Their 6-0 victory over their reeling crosstown rival was their fourth win in a row and part of a stretch in which the Sox won 14 of 16 games.

But those two weeks of good feelings have since come to a halt, as the White Sox have dropped five consecutive series to Toronto, Houston, St. Louis, Los Angeles and now the Cubs. And on Wednesday, they send a struggling Gavin Floyd to the mound looking to avoid being swept for the first time this season.

"I think I said it when we were in the midst of our nine-game winning streak, teams are going to win five, six, seven in a row and lose five, six, seven in a row," Adam Dunn explained. "And that's just kinda part of it. Hopefully we can go out today and kinda salvage something and get ready for this weekend."

The Sox won nine straight games in late May and early June in large part thanks to their offense, which tallied 72 runs during that winning streak. In recent games, the Sox have struggled to support stingy outings from Jake Peavy and Jose Quintana.

"When we were putting up 10 runs a game, that's just not going to happen all the time," Gordon Beckham said. "We've just hit a little lull where we just aren't getting the big hit or the runs we need in. We just gotta pick it up. It'll change, it'll definitely change, we just need to make it sooner rather than later."

There's still plenty of time left for the White Sox. Wednesday's game is No. 69 on the season, meaning there are 93 more left. There will be ups and downs, and consistency is often difficult to achieve.

"I don't think there's a lot of teams out there that can say they've played consistently month in and month out," Dunn said. "If we have more wins than losses, we'll be pretty good."

Heading into Wednesday's game, the White Sox have two more wins than they have losses. They haven't been swept all season, as Beckham pointed out. But if Floyd can't find a way to get better results, that may change tonight. Manager Robin Ventura hinted before the game that most of Floyd's issues are in his own head.

"Frustrating is just one of those words that's thrown around but he's the one that has to go through it," Ventura said of Floyd. "As a team, I think that's part of him pitching is the pressures of not letting people down and things like that. Those are probably bigger than just the frustrations, is he's trying to do a lot and he just needs to be himself."

As Floyd's ERA has ballooned to 5.63, it's been easy for some to forget how good he was to begin the season. In Floyd's first seven starts, he struck out 42, walked 13 and allowed four home runs with a 2.53 ERA. In his last six outings, Floyd has struck out 30, walked 10 and allowed 11 home runs with a 10.38 ERA. The Sox are 1-5 in those starts.

Dunn says, though, that Floyd's recent issues don't put any added pressure on the offense and him.

"As position players and hitters, we don't worry about out pitching because there's nothing we can do -- if we score 10 runs, we're probably going to win," Dunn said. "Our goal is to score 10 runs a game. That's probably not going to happen on a consistent basis, but I can promise you if we score 10 we'll win."

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