Sitting at his desk in the visiting manager's office prior to Sunday afternoon's series finale at Safeco Field, manager Ozzie Guillen held up the daily Major League statistical pack and pointed out two areas circled in red concerning his team.

Not only do the White Sox rank last in the American League with a .246 average, but they also sit second to last in pitching with a 4.86 ERA.

That lethal combination helps explain why the South Siders now have a 54-69 record, trailing only Tampa Bay for the AL's worst ledger, following an 11-5 shellacking administered by the Mariners to close out an 0-6 western road swing through Oakland and Seattle.

In the case of the American League Central cellar dwellers, the numbers don't lie.

"I'm not a numbers guy," Guillen said. "I never look at the computer and I never check stats. But I was checking the numbers, and the first thing that comes to my mind is, 'Wow.'

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