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Jason Giambi figures the New York Yankees caught the White Sox "at a time they're not playing very good baseball." Alex Rodriguez says it's wrong to read too much into the Sox's recent problems.

Bully for them.

The Detroit Tigers, however, aren't likely to be as generous in their description of the events if they can add to the defending World Series champions' discomfort.

Unlike the Yankees, who swept the White Sox in the first series after the All-Star break, the Tigers could use a little respect to go along with their best-in-baseball record.

"It's kind of hard to keep saying negative stuff and not believe," Detroit center fielder Curtis Granderson said. "I guess people turn a blind eye and say, 'Who are the teams that are traditionally there? The Yankees, the Red Sox. Those guys must be great because they have the name.' It all comes down to the uniform."

Granderson and his teammates know that none of the teams with recent track records can touch the Tigers' record. With 70 games remaining in the regular season, they enter a three-game series against the White Sox at Comerica Park on pace to win 109 games.

That's a seriously good season -- the best in the majors since Seattle's 116-win season in 2001 and five more wins than Sparky Anderson's Bless-You-Boys Tigers in 1984. You figure they're going to cool off some time, but you also should figure that they're not going to cool off so much that they miss the playoffs. They seem too strong to do that.

Every American League team to win 95 games in the wild-card era has made the playoffs. The Tigers have to go only 33-37 the rest of the way to reach 95 wins.

By taking three of four against Kansas City last weekend, Jim Leyland's team stretched its lead over the White Sox from 2 to 4½ games in the AL Central. The wild card currently figures to be there for the team that finishes second in the AL Central, but that's subject to change.

"I think the wild card is coming from [the Central]," the Yankees' Rodriguez said last weekend. "I really do. I don't think any of those teams are going to slow down. I think it's best for us to think about the East. The thing about the White Sox is they can go and leave this place and win 18 out of 20. We can't expect for somebody to fall on their face."

Rodriguez is taking the prudent view, of course. You can never count on other teams to solve your problems.

But things look a lot brighter for the Yankees and Boston Red Sox since they took five of six from the White Sox in the two series on either side of the All-Star break. This slide has created at least the possibility of a six-for-three playoff battle including the Tigers, White Sox, Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays and Twins (who are hurt by recent injuries to Torii Hunter and Shannon Stewart).

Ozzie Guillen's champions were only one game behind Detroit and seven ahead of the Yankees on the morning of July 9. Now there are four wild-card contenders separated by smaller margins, including the Blue Jays (6 games) and Twins (6½ games).

"First of all, they have a great club," Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski said about the White Sox in a recent Chicago Tribune interview. "They've also won a world championship, so they believe in themselves. I don't think they think we're going away, but I think in their situation they believe they'll be fine."

A year ago, the White Sox led the Central by 15 games on Aug. 1 only to watch Cleveland whittle all but 1½ games off it entering the final nine days of the season. They clinched a title in Detroit and went on to thank the Indians for presenting the late challenge, which proved the perfect preparation for October pressure.

Perhaps this year they will be able to look back on the Tigers' challenge in the same light. But at the moment you'd have to say the White Sox are in danger of being dusted by their sparring partners.

While the White Sox are scoring runs quicker than any other team in the majors, they have lost the sharpness that characterized them a year ago. Their staff ERA has jumped to 4.61, a full run higher than it was last season. And the recent trend is even worse.

White Sox pitchers have compiled a 5.24 ERA since the end of May. That's the worst mark of the six contending teams in the Central-East-wild card triangle, by far. The Tigers' ERA during the same time is 3.65 -- pretty impressive considering they have had rookie Zach Miner replacing the injured Mike Maroth.

Kenny Rogers, the AL's All-Star starter, and rookie Justin Verlander remain the ringleaders, while Jeremy Bonderman and Nate Robertson have been strong in their supporting roles.

Verlander might not be content with winning the Rookie of the Year award. He's pitching like he wants the Cy Young, too. On Saturday, Verlander blew away the Royals, raising his record to 11-4 with a 2.83 ERA. He's given up only eight hits in 22 innings over his last three starts, prompting Reggie Sanders to call him "Randy from the right side."

Randy, as in Johnson.

"That's strong," Sanders told the Detroit Free Press' John Lowe. "From what he's shown so far, in the times he's faced us, I'd compare him to Randy."

One blessing for the White Sox is that they won't face Verlander in the series that starts Tuesday. They'll get Robertson, Bonderman and Rogers -- a trio that has combined to go 28-12 with a 3.68 ERA.

Those are the kind of numbers that White Sox starters put up a year ago. They were supposed to be even stronger in 2006, with Javier Vazquez replacing Orlando Hernandez, but they've needed the terrific run support they've been given to build winning records.

Jose Contreras (9-1, 3.48) is the lone Sox starter with an impressive ERA. Mark Buehrle had a 3.22 mark when Guillen named him to the All-Star team, but it jumped to 4.43 when he was hammered in his last three starts, giving up 11 runs to the Cubs, five to the Red Sox and eight to the Yankees.

Jon Garland says he and his fellow starters are simply tired.

"I'm pretty sure there's definitely fatigue," he said. "It's going to happen. It's how you deal with it, how you bounce back."

Guillen wonders if last year's 11-1 October run is having an impact.

"You have to remember those guys pitched one month later than everyone else," Guillen said. "They never did it before. We have to be patient with them. The expectations are so high, all of a sudden, when somebody fails for a couple days, there's going to be a lot of [questions] here -- what are we doing, what should we be doing?

"Right now, we've had a couple bad outings. As long as we're healthy, that's all that matters. When you're healthy, you can fix the little problems. I'm not panicking. … They just got to continue to throw and get out there."

This will be the first of four second-half series between the Tigers and White Sox, with a total of 13 games remaining. Chicago, which owns a 72-41 edge in the series over the last seven years, swept a three-game series at Comerica in April and took two out of three at U.S. Cellular in June.

History is definitely on the White Sox's side, but in baseball it's the team that has the most pitching that wields the hammer.

Phil Rogers is the national baseball writer for the Chicago Tribune, which has a Web site at www.chicagosports.com. His book, "Say It's So," a story about the 2005 White Sox, is available at bookstores, through amazon.com or direct order from Triumph Publishing (800-222-4657).