Why are the White Sox dialing 9-1-1?

About a month ago (on May 6th) the White Sox' bullpen pitched four shutout innings, enabling them to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win 4-3 against the Los Angeles Angels in 10 innings. At that point the ChiSox' bullpen had a 3.29 ERA, third best in the American League. What has happened since then? Here are the teams with the worst relief ERAs in baseball since May 7th.

Yes, a 9.11 ERA. That's an emergency, and Kenny Williams has placed the call. He just sent down David Aardsma (6.18 ERA for the full season) and Mike MacDougal (7.13). Andy Sisco (8.36) lost his job a week ago. Their ERAs on May 6th? Aardsma: 1.53. MacDougal: 3.09. Sisco: 3.24.

The White Sox have gone from third best in the American League to the worst bullpen ERA in baseball at 5.61.

Here's the surprising thing: Their victory on May 6th gave the Sox a 14-14 record. Since then, with the incredibly anemic bullpen, they've gone 12-13. Not as bad as you would expect, especially given that the Pale Hose remain the lowest scoring team in the American League.

The Detroit Tigers have the second-worst bullpen ERA in baseball in the past month (6.78) and are now the second worst in baseball for the season (5.46). But they have a 32-24 record and are only two-and-a-half games out of first place.

The theory might be that you can still play OK despite a bad bullpen in the short run, but it's sure not much of a recipe for longterm success.