"If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the American League Central.

Or something like that.

Not that the White Sox' division is the hottest thing going. Their 8-2 victory against Justin Verlander

(12-5) and the Detroit Tigers kept them within five games of the first-place Cleveland Indians and moved them within four of the Tigers, who are considered the team to beat.

And the Sox are three games under .500.

But that losing-record stuff is in the Sox' past, they'd like to believe, and what better way to prove it than by beating the AL's best starting pitcher on the first day of a nine-game road swing through the Central after the All-Star break.

"I told them today in the meeting, 'It's all about you, it's not about me,' ''

manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Don't worry about rumors [or] anything. A lot of rumors out there. If you're not playing well, of course you're going to get traded. This is baseball. This is a business. [General manager] Kenny [Williams] is not stupid, [Chairman] Jerry [Reinsdorf] is not stupid. If you don't play to potential, well, why not do whatever they have to do. If you play good, believe me, they're not going to move anybody.''

Before a sellout crowd at Comerica Park, the play was mostly all good. Gavin Floyd (7-9) gave up two runs (one earned) over 7?2/3 innings to improve to 6-1 lifetime against the Tigers. Two of the Sox' biggest underachievers of the first half, Adam Dunn and Gordon Beckham, hit bases-loaded two-run singles. Leadoff man Juan Pierre scored Beckham with a squeeze bunt single and scored two runs. The Sox scored five runs with two outs."