Starting Friday, the White Sox embark on a 10-game trip that takes them to Detroit for three, Minnesota for four and Kansas City for three.

"Even if we play well on this trip, it isn't like we won the division when we return," outfielder Jermaine Dye said.

And while that might be the case, they could lose it.

That's what type of trip this is. The kind that leaves players sitting around in October either enjoying the start of the postseason and looking back at this trip as the reason why, or talking to each other from their offseason homes wishing they had taken care of business when they had a chance. Either way, the next 10 days can define this team.

"I said last week, the road trip is going to be a real important one," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "When we play against our division, it's really important for us.

"We have to play good on the road trip to put our point across. Hopefully, those guys prepare themselves mentally to do it."

Even veteran Jim Thome, who has a "one-day-at-a-time" mentality, knows what's at stake.

"I would say that this is probably one of the biggest road trips we've had from the standpoint of where we're at as far as the other teams in the division," Thome said. "There's some good clubs, and we knew that. Let's face it, we knew this year there were very competitive teams. To sit and make a prediction that this team will run away with it and this team will fall, it's hard to do that. In baseball, if you focus in daily -- and trust me it's hard -- the excitement and getting into a pennant race, but if you can focus in on the task that day, not think ahead too much, in the long run we'll be in that situation as a team that you want to be in."

If the Sox get out of Detroit unscathed -- quite possible because of how well they match up with the Tigers -- four games in Minnesota with the "Piranhas" will be no easy task. It never is.

"I don't know if that's the case," Dye responded, when asked if Sox players are a bit hesitant with the prospect of seven more games in the Metrodome this season. "Minnesota always seems to have good teams, and I think it may have just played out that way. I never get the vibe of anyone in this clubhouse thinking about that, playing scared there or anything like that. There are certain stadiums you struggle in.

"For whatever reason, we go to Oakland, we can't win in Oakland. When I was in Oakland, (the Sox) couldn't beat us either, whether it's not being able to see the ball real well or just weird things that happen."

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