Could they?

NEW YORK -- The White Sox would like a mulligan for April. The month was one big, fat waste.

''Very bad month, very, very ... I don't know if it was a bad month, but a very disappointing month,'' manager Ozzie Guillen said Saturday. ''I thought, deep in my heart, we would have a better start than we did.''

But May is a bit different. There's much more at stake. A 9-14 record in April left the Sox six games behind the Minnesota Twins and tied with the Kansas City Royals for last place in the American League Central. If this goes on much longer, some tough decisions have to be made.

Do Bobby Jenks and A.J. Pierzynski become expendable? Or does general manager Ken Williams go back up his sleeve and try to rip one more card out to turn this around?

The latter scenario would seem unlikely, considering the Sox' payroll restraints, but since when has Williams been predictable?

One major-league scout said this week that the Sox and San Diego Padres had further discussions about Adrian Gonzalez and even discussed names. It shouldn't come as a surprise because the organizations know each other's personnel so well after the Jake Peavy deal.

But the Padres' first-place record is a big problem.

The Padres' front office has spent the last two seasons operating a garage sale, but trading Gonzalez would amount to spitting in the their fans' faces.

Williams was asked Saturday about the talk with the Padres and responded in a vague text: ''Just trying to win today's game.''

Meanwhile, the players try to make sense of a disappointing start.

''Surprised, yeah,'' reliever Matt Thornton said. ''We saw what we did in spring training. The games might not have mattered then, but you saw what we had. We saw how things came together. So far, that hasn't happened as a whole.

''We've had bits and pieces here and there, one game the offense, one game the pitching. It seems like when the pitching produces, the offense isn't there. When the offense produces, the pitching hasn't been there. We need to get it going at the same time.''

Thornton said he sees the schedule as an ally. The Sox have yet to play the second-place Detroit Tigers and only have faced the Twins three times.

''We play them a lot,'' Thornton said. ''We have a lot of games against those guys. It doesn't matter what kind of gap you've got; that means you get the chance to close it. It comes down to right now we've lost games by one or two runs, and we need to start winning those games. It's a matter of staying together and continuing to play hard. There's no lack of effort. It's just the performance hasn't gone the right way. It comes down to winning those close games, no matter what it takes.''

The good sign before the game against the New York Yankees was there was no moping in the clubhouse.

''I like the clubhouse better than the dugout,'' Guillen said. ''The clubhouse is very loose. I'm not going to let that happen in the clubhouse. We do everything every day. In the dugout, it seems like it's kind of quiet once in a while.

''To be honest, I don't have any complaints. They play hard. They play the game the way they should. They're just not hitting. It's not easy when you're struggling the way we are and be running around and having fun. I know that. But I still have a lot of faith in them. I think the lineup we have can still [get] through this. And hopefully that happens. But I've been saying that for a month already, and nothing comes up yet.''

The calendar only has turned to May, but the clock is ticking.