Sox start crucial trip

A couple of White Sox veterans said the team's upcoming 11-game road trip could help determine the team's fate for the rest of the season.

The Sox start a four-game series at Boston on Monday before heading to Yankee Stadium for three games this weekend. After that, they travel to the Twins' Metrodome, which always has been tough on the Sox, and they finish the trip with a makeup game at Wrigley Field.

"I think it's a make or break [road trip] for us," Sox starter Mark Buehrle said. "I think you look at it when the schedule first came out in the offseason, you looked at obviously this was going to be a big series. Going to Boston and New York, [they're] always good, and we don't play well in Minnesota.

"I think it's going to be a make or break [trip]," Buehrle repeated. "Hopefully we can go at least .500 or better. I think if we go under .500, it's going to be tough to dig ourselves out of a hole."

Sox first baseman Paul Konerko agreed that a bad trip could cost the Sox.

"It's probably more break than make, unfortunately," Konerko said. "Because if we have a good trip, there's still a lot of work out there. But when you're playing 10 games, seven against two really tough teams, and three against a team you don't do well against a lot at their place, there's potential there.

"But we can't think about what if," Konerko said. "The biggest game is tomorrow's game, and we can't worry about Minnesota now, we can't worry about New York now. We've just got to go out and play tomorrow's game and try to get a win. Like I said, no matter what happens, we're not going to be out of this thing or we're not going to clinch this thing come a week from this Thursday. We've just go to keep grinding."

-Tom Musick