It's a phrase that would make general manger Ken Williams sick to his stomach, if he already wasn't feeling under the weather on Saturday. It's also a situation the organization never could have imagined happening to this talented team at any point during the 2007 season, especially as late as with 40 games remaining.

But with Seattle's 7-5 victory over the White Sox on Saturday night at Safeco Field, coupled with Kansas City's 7-3 victory in Oakland, the South Siders now have sole possession of the American League Central basement for the first time since the second game of the season when they were 0-2.

Seattle (68-52), meanwhile, moved within two games of the Angels for the AL West lead. Two teams heading in completely different directions, and playing as such on the field.

"It's a reason to it," said a visibly disappointed manager Ozzie Guillen, after the White Sox lost their season-high seventh straight. "The way we play, we should be in last place. We [don't] earn or deserve being anything better than last place.

"[We're] not playing good and, tonight, we helped another team to play better against us. We made some mistakes mentally today, and when you [don't] pitch right and don't hit, that's what you should be. [We're] not coaching, [we're] not managing, we don't play defense, [we're] not pitching. When everything is wrong, this is what you get.

"They better start preparing because we hit the bottom already," Guillen added. "It's easy to prepare yourself when you are winning or the game means something. But you play to win, no matter what place you are."

John Danks (6-11) actually was staked to a 3-0 lead, behind solo home runs from Jim Thome and A.J. Pierzynski and Juan Uribe's sacrifice fly off Jeff Weaver (5-10). Thome's blast was the first of two on the night, with his two-run shot to center in the eighth against left-handed reliever George Sherrill giving him at least 20 home runs in a single season for the 13th time in his career, while also marking his first long balls since Aug. 4.

Thome has two multi-home run games this season and 39 overall. The home run total for his illustrious career now sits at 492, and he actually came close to hitting 493 and 494. The prolific slugger flew out to Ichiro in center, some 390 feet away, to end the third. Leading off the sixth, Thome lofted a long drive to left which Raul Ibanez made a leaping catch of against the wall to take away another White Sox run.

Entering in the throes of a 5-for-37 skid since his last home run, Thome felt good to make solid contact. But the night's end result left him less than thrilled.

"When you don't win the game, it's really not fun," said Thome, who also was stuck in an 11-for-64 funk with one home run over his last 18 games before Saturday. "When you struggle, you don't want it to last, and you want to get out of it as quickly as you can.

"This one has lasted a while. So, you put in the work and understand good and bad times like that are going to come."

The Mariners tied the game in the fifth on Jose Guillen's bad-hop two-run single that almost hit third baseman Josh Fields square in the face with two outs, and took control with a four-run sixth. Kenji Johjima and Jose Vidro singled home runs in the rally off of Danks and reliever Ehren Wasserman, with runs also scoring on Jerry Owens' throwing error and a wild pitch.

Despite throwing just 76 pitches, 50 of them for strikes, Danks was removed by Guillen following Adrian Beltre's leadoff single in the sixth. The rookie southpaw didn't think about debating Guillen for a chance to stay in the game, ultimately finishing with four runs allowed on nine hits, striking out two.

"You know, it isn't my spot to talk about what he's trying to do," said Danks, when asked if he tried to get Guillen to let him continue pitching in the sixth. "I felt good, like I threw better than five-plus innings, four runs. I felt like I could have gone a little longer, and I wanted to.

"All and all, he's the manager and he makes the decisions. I take the ball when they give it to me and give it up when they take it."

Guillen's crew has lost seven straight for the first time since Aug. 12-20, 2005, and slipped to a season-worst 14 games under .500 at 54-68. With 14 games separating them from the Indians and 15 games between themselves and the AL Wild Card-leading Mariners, the official counting down of their elimination number stands as a more likely watch than a march to the postseason.

With that elimination number at 27 and a possible 0-6 road trip staring them in the face, the White Sox have to avoid letting losing become commonplace. Both Thome and Danks believe that situation won't play out for the South Siders.

"We've had more losses than wins and we don't like that," Danks said. "We feel like we can win every game and feel like we should win every game. It hasn't bounced our way this year but there's still a month and a half to the season and we can salvage the record and at the very least play spoiler down the road."

"You come here at 1 or 2 o'clock and see other guys show up," added Thome, defending his team's motivation. "They put the work in. At times, it just hasn't happened. The work is there and the effort is there. It's been a frustrating year on that end."