Sox need to make up games by beating the weakings

Last night’s 11-8 loss to Detroit, with none other than nominal ace Freddy Garcia on the hill, looks like it could be the beginning of the end.

With Minnesota keeping its five-game lead with a win against the Yankees, the Sox are looking at having to win or split every series from now until the end of the season if they want to win the AL Central.

Even that could be optimistic, because it assumes Minnesota will play .500 ball the rest of the way, and that Cleveland doesn’t match the Sox game-for-game.

Chicago does have two things going for it. The first is that Minnesota will play a tough schedule, with most of their games against the Royals and Tigers already a thing of the past.

The second advantage is that while the Sox finish the season by playing eight games against Kansas City and three against Detroit, Cleveland and Minnesota will face off against each other in seven of their last 10 games.

Still, if the Sox even want to stay alive in the last two weeks of the season, they’ll probably need to climb to within three games the division leader by Sept. 23. That could happen with the Sox playing a lot of lousy teams down the stretch.

But that could be a tall order when a team like Detroit is kicking around your ace.