The White Sox never threatened to steal a base or take an extra base. All their runs came on the homers by DeWayne Wise and Paul Konerko.

Vintage stuff for this stodgy club.

The White Sox' vanilla offense concerned manager Ozzie Guillen more than another bad showing by righthander Javier Vazquez during a 6-4 loss to Tampa Bay in the opener of their American League Division Series.

Guillen can get away without again using Vazquez — who has struggled since the move to a four-man rotation — in this series. Plus, Guillen can rightfully expect a good showing from Friday's starter, lefthander Mark Buehrle.

The offense is another matter.

"I'm not worried about my pitching,'' Guillen said. "I'm worried about my lineup.''

The lineup lives and dies with the homer. In the regular season, the White Sox scored 45.2 percent of their runs on homers, highest rate in the majors. The only run in Monday's playoff win against Minnesota came, naturally, on a homer.

The White Sox led the majors in homers with 225. Despite all that power, they were only sixth in the majors in runs, at 4.98 per game.

That speaks to too much dependence on the homer, an AL affliction. The last AL team to lead the league in homers and win a postseason series was the 2004 New York Yankees, who beat Minnesota in the opening round.

Homer-happy teams can be pitched to, and most postseason teams have the arms to do that.

"Teams that hit a lot of homers can be all-or-nothing,'' said lefthander Scott Kazmir, who will start for the Rays tonight. "You've got to know where to not leave a mistake. If you can do that, you've got a good chance at success.''

Tampa Bay starter James Shields made only one glaring mistake: a middle-of-the-plate fastball that Wise hit for a three-run homer in the third inning. Shields did leave a mess for the bullpen: bases loaded and one out in the seventh. The White Sox's response illustrated their situation.

Reliever Grant Balfour got the vital out by fanning Juan Uribe, who chased fastballs out of the strike zone. Orlando Cabrera did the same thing to end the inning and an emotional confrontation with Balfour.

Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon calls Balfour "the Mad Australian,'' in a take-off on former major leaguer Al Hrabosky's tag of "Mad Hungarian.'' Balfour is animated on the mound, and he shouted an obscenity after a first-pitch ball.

Cabrera thought the word was directed at him and barked back. Balfour approached Cabrera, but umpire Joe West and catcher Dioner Navarro served as peacemakers.

"I'm just used to (Balfour) doing that,'' Navarro said. 'That's just the way he is.''

After blowing away Cabrera to end the inning, Balfour yapped at the White Sox all the way back to the dugout. There was some milling about on the field, and Rays coach Dave Martinez was upset that the White Sox were upset. In the end, peace reigned.

"They say he always gets pumped up like that,'' Cabrera said. "I got a little mad and was pumped up. It was the heat of the moment in the battlefield.''

Cabrera, the leadoff hitter, had other problems. He did not reach base in four plate appearances, including two at-bats with runners in scoring position during which he failed to get the ball out of the infield. Cabrera also could not make contact on a rare (for the White Sox) hit-and-run play in the fifth that resulted in catcher A.J. Pierzynski being thrown out by about 15 feet.

Cabrera was not alone.

Jim Thome, the cleanup hitter, went 0-for-4 with three grounders into the teeth of an exaggerated shift to the right side. That spoke to the Rays' ability to pitch to the game plan.

Ken Griffey Jr. is a shell of his former self, and was also 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and no pitches pulled. According to a National League scout at the game, Griffey is guessing fastball on every pitch to make up for lost bat speed and cannot adjust to off-speed pitches.

If Guillen makes a lineup change for tonight, he could pull Griffey in favor of slumping Nick Swisher or Brian Anderson. Something has to change, or this season will end soon for the White Sox.