"The results don't show it, but Adam Dunn felt encouraged by his final three at-bats Sunday even though none resulted in a hit.

That was nearly as good as it got for the White Sox's offense, which finished a six-game trip with a 4-2 record despite scoring only 19 runs following a 3-1 loss to the Cubs.

"Our season is still in front of us," hitting coach Greg Walker said. "Could we have played better? Could we have made it easier on ourselves? Sure. We haven't made a run. We haven't played well for any length of time since the first week or two of the season, so I'm encouraged the team is fighting.

"We won four of six, so we got to get over the fact it's like the sky is falling every time we lose a game. We just got to better ourselves. Go on a roll and see what happens."

Dunn's average dropped to .165, but he said he felt better after striking out for the 104th time in the first inning.

"I guess balance would be the right word, or feeling that I had everything underneath me to where it felt normal to me," Dunn said.

Dunn espoused the same feelings as his teammates about the fact the Sox are only 3½ games out of first place in the American League Central despite a .252 batting average."