The news on Troy Percival is not good. Treatment of the elbow expected to finish games will almost certainly keep the 35-year-old reliever out the rest of the season, and a surgical recovery time of 10-12 months wouldn’t leave much of next season either.

Percival was the last step in a three-man shut down plan for the late innings. Middle piece Ugueth Urbina was traded a few weeks ago. Happily, the piece that was going to lead off the trio — right-hander Kyle Farnsworth — has settled right into being the dominant one. In 28 appearances since May 11, Farnsworth has an 0.36 ERA. He has saves in his past two games.

Fortunately, the news on Jeremy Bonderman is very good. After a rocky outing last week against the Royals, the ace and wanna be All-Star, shut down the White Sox, holding them to three hits, the day after a tough loss to the team with the best record in baseball.

Manager Alan Trammell said before Bonderman took the mound Tuesday: “He didn’t pitch well last Thursday (a 12-9 loss to Kansas City) — not like he’s capable of pitching. I would think that he’d be better today, and we need him.”

P.S. The man acquired in the Urbina deal, Placido Polanco, hasn’t played since suffering a torn left hamstring July 10. If this team had any kind of health, they’d be even closer than Bonderman thinks they are now.

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