You know you are in trouble when your most effective relief pitcher lately is Mike MacUseless.  Four months ago, I would have been sure that sentence was an oxymoron.

Again last night, after a terrific six inning start from Mark Buehrle, the White Sox pen choked away the lead (again).  The saving grace of the evening was the Indians rising to the occasion, taking out the Twinkies and reducing the White Sox magic number to twelve.

Obviously, the skipper isn't pleased.

Bottom line is, the Sox desperately need the pen to right itself.  Guys like Ehren Wasserman and Boone Logan have pitched far below expectation this year and if they seriously want to avoid being shipped off to Oakland or some other team for the next Carlos Quentin, they best get it in gear.  Same for Octavio Dotel who has looked more like a batting practice pitcher than a quality reliever lately. In fact, I've now nicknamed him "room service."

The Yankees, playing only for pride, are ripe for the picking.  The Sox need to take advantage of their sorry state, then go into Kansas City with guns blazing before their showdown in the Roller Dome next week.  The Twinkies have been running out of gas lately and it almost looks like both teams will have to jump out of the vehicle and push it across the finish line.

The best way to approach this is to score some runs, thus negating the use of the bullpen.  Of course, that almost blew up in the Sox faces Sunday night.

Sit back, relax and strap it down.  The next two weeks should be one wild ride.