Unless you are bragging about how amazing the Sox have been (save the beating by the PITAs), then stop talking. Don’t tell us about what the Yankees are doing. If you do, all Sox fans will here is “blah blah blah”! Everyone knows the Yankees are on top in the east. In fact, at this point in the season, it is pretty much expected. However, they are now in Chicago to take on the White Sox in yet again, a critical series for the Sox. Here is what you should know for the next few days:

2012 Record: White Sox 65-55, 1st in AL Central. Yankees 72-49, 1st in AL East

2012 Series Record: 2-2

All-Time series Record: 804-1,043 (the Sox are 437-487 at home against the Yankees)

The following pitchers are expected to start the three games:

Gavin Floyd: 9-9, 4.43 ERA, 112K vs. Freddy Garcia: 7-5, 4.68 ERA, 64K

Francisco Liriano: 4-10, 5.22 ERA, 132K vs. Ivan Nova: 11-6, 4.76 ERA, 136K

Chris Sale: 14-4, 2.72 ERA, 137K vs. Phil Hughes: 12-10, 4.23 ERA, 120K

All three games begin at 7:10 pm CDT.

Oh White Sox! It will be nice to see you at home again. After having witnessed some pretty disgusting baseball from you in Kansas City, we can only hope you’ve gotten the nasty out of your system. You are for sure proving that it is definitely the dog days of summer. We are now 20 days into August and things aren’t going to get any easier. In fact, the next four series are going to be tough. First there are the Yankees. Then the Mariners. While the Mariners are generally a team that scares no one, given how you played against the Royals, anything is possible. Then you have battles against the Orioles and of course division chaser, the Dirty Beast Tigers. Oh and the Orioles and Tigers are both in the playoff spot hunt as well.

No, things won’t be easy, but first up will be dealing with the Yankees. Everyone “hates” the Yankees. Because they buy championships, don’t develop players and generally are viewed as the scourge of baseball. Oh and their fans (SOME) tend to be smug people. Then again, you get that right when your team has won 27 championships. And they probably will be chirping about the fireworks after home runs are hit by the White Sox. Let’s hope the Sox hit a TON of them to annoy their fans.

As for the baseball, the Sox are slightly banged up. Kevin Youkilis and Alejandro De Aza both sat out the final game against the PITAs. De Aza with back issues and Youk with a nagging knee thing. The team did get back its captain over the weekend. Paul Konerko returned to full playing (both on the field and with the bat) Sunday. He had been out with a concussion, but as able to return to play on Friday in the opener against the Royals to be the designated hitter. There were also a bunch of recent moves for the team as well (Orlando Hudson and Leyson Septimo to the disabled list; Hector Santiago recalled from Charlotte) but in the grand scheme of things, they seem minor.

Meanwhile, the Yankees for the most part have been cruising in the AL East. They comfortably have a five game lead over the Rays and six games over the Orioles. In their last 10 games, they have won eight of them, including a series win over division rival Boston Red Sox this past weekend.

Since Sox last saw the Yankees, they’ve been busy dealing with various injuries. They acquired Ichiro Suzuki and sent Dewayne Wise away (who is now making an impact with the White Sox.) CC Sabathia was just put on the disabled list when they met earlier this year. And he is back on the DL as of August 11 with soreness in his pitching elbow. Not a good thing for a team that is looking for pitching. Just recently, they signed Derek Lowe and he has been working out of the bullpen for them. The team was definitely busy in July trying to make the team better and ready for a run at number 28.

This should be an interesting series for sure. The Yankees are never easy for the White Sox to face. Given recent offensive outages, the Sox are going to have to hope they can get to the Yankee starters are those guys are having some off-days.

Who’s Hot: Dayan Viciedo has a 10-game hitting streak. Derek Jeter had nine-game hitting streak end on Saturday where he was hitting .375.  Who’s Not: Kevin Youkilis is hitting just .171 of late. Robinson Cano was hitless in 16 at-bats before finally getting a single in last night’s game.  

For more on the Yankees, be sure to visit Second Place is Not an Option