"It might be a season-changer because he's our leader," manager Ozzie Guillen said of Cabrera's transformation. "The leader on the field? That should be him, he's the shortstop and knows the game. I told him, 'I brought you here to be a leader, not just a... Gold Glover and leadoff hitter.'

"I didn't want 24 guys and then one. I want 25 guys or nothing. That's what he's doing now. The way he's playing right now, thank God."

That was not the case in April and most of May. Cabrera was described as "last one in, first one out," by his teammates. He distanced himself from the other players, even showing little respect for them by calling up to the press box to overturn errors charged to him -- in one instance wanting one charged to catcher Toby Hall. Of course, that's a no-no in teammate edict.

When Guillen warned Cabrera in a Sun-Times article about it back in May, Cabrera fired back that his manager didn't have his back. Finally, on a road trip in Tampa Bay at the end of May, the two had a closed-door meeting in Guillen's office.

Since then?

"He's a different guy," one teammate remarked.

On and off the field.

With a second-inning double on Saturday against the Cubs, Cabrera had hit safely in 23 of his last 25 games, going 37-of-108 (.343) with 15 runs and 18 RBI in that time. He was 0-for-4 against the Cubs Sunday night.

"There are two people here that know 'Caby' and that's (Javier) Vazquez and myself, and I was not seeing the 'Caby' I know," Guillen confessed. "I was worried about it. That's what I talked to him about in Tampa Bay. I told him, 'It took me two or three years to finally get you here, I want to see the Cabrera I know.'

"Thank God he just turned it around. I'm not going to say it was just that conversation, because he then talked to a couple of his teammates and the air was cleared. I think he was a little embarrassed with what he did, but there are so many things about it when you come to a new place. He told me (in Tampa Bay), 'I want to be here, I want to be part of the guys.' I told him this is an easy ballclub to get along with. There's good guys here."

While Guillen didn't want to go into details on where Cabrera was headed if he didn't change, it was likely away from the South Side in a trade. Now, his manager is touting him as the key player on a first-place team.

WHITE SOX 5, CUBS 1: The home-and-home domination continued in the saga that is Sox-Cubs, as it was the South Siders' turn to play unfriendly host and get the three-game sweep. The long ball continued to be the Sox' friend, as Carlos Quentin, Brian Anderson and Jim Thome each homered. Thome's homer moved him into sole possession of 16th place on the all-time list with 522.

Sox starting pitcher Mark Buehrle did the rest, improving to 4-0 with a 1.15 ERA in his last five starts.