Chicago White Sox manager Will Venable is keeping the current American League Central standings in perspective.
“You look broadly, and in our division everyone is kind of bunched up here, which is great,” Venable said Tuesday at Rate Field. “You feel like you can be competitive, and obviously playing meaningful games is important.
“At the same time, we’re a couple games under .500 (19-21). That’s not where we want to be. And so our focus is really on ourselves and what we can do to go out there and execute and try to win today.”
The Sox entered Tuesday’s series opener against the Kansas City Royals in second place in the AL Central, 1½ games behind the Cleveland Guardians.
Photos: Chicago White Sox beat Kansas City Royals 6-5 in series opener
There wasn’t much separation between first and last place. The Minnesota Twins were at the bottom of the division through Monday but trailed the Guardians by only three games.
“You’re always kind of aware of (the standings),” Sox outfielder/designated hitter Andrew Benintendi told the Tribune. “The last few years up to this point, it seemed like we’re almost out of it.
“Right now it’s fun. We’re competitive in the division. There’s a long way to go, but we’ve put ourselves in a position where we are at least talking about it.”
No team has taken charge yet. The Guardians were the lone AL Central team with a winning record entering Tuesday, and they were only one game over .500 at 22-21. Rookie outfielder Chase DeLauter (.292 average, six home runs, 25 RBIs) has been among their contributors.
The Detroit Tigers (19-22) are currently without two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. The lefty is recovering after surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow.
The Royals (19-22) struggled out of the gate but are 7-3 in May. Shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. was named the American League Player of the Week on Monday after hitting .407 (11-for-27) with three home runs.
The Twins (18-23) had gone 7-16 after an 11-7 start. They did win two of three against the Guardians last weekend.
The Sox have been on the move by winning three of their last four series — including taking two of three over the weekend against the Seattle Mariners
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at Rate Field.“You are paying attention to what’s going on always in baseball, whether it be in the American League or our division,” general manager Chris Getz told reporters Friday. “We are tracking that, (but) we are not losing sight of what we are building toward here.
“More than anything, guys are continuing to progress and develop at the minor-league and major-league level. They have taken advantage of these opportunities. We just want to continue to play quality baseball, compete.
“If you just look at it on a daily basis, on a nightly basis, we feel like we have a chance to win. It’s not like we didn’t in the past. It was more, you almost needed to be perfect. Now the lineup is deeper, the rotation is deeper. We’ve got some weapons in the bullpen to allow us to navigate and finish off games. The defense has improved. We just want to stay at it.”
Getz said the Sox “felt really good” about the progress at lower levels.
“We all know there’s a lag to seeing it happen at the major-league level.” he said, “and now to get some glimpses into what we are capable of doing more on a regular basis than we were in the past is encouraging and exciting. Hopefully our fans feel the same way about where this is headed.
“Most importantly we just have to stay at it and make really sound decisions and continue to develop these players.”
That work continues with the series against the Royals. In a scheduling quirk, this is just the second series this season against an AL Central team — and the first was also against the Royals. The teams split a four-game series April 9-12 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo.
Later this month the Sox will catch up with the Twins (May 25-28) and Tigers (May 29-31) at Rate Field. They see the Guardians for the first time June 22 at Rate Field.
Veterans on the team know there’s plenty of baseball remaining.
“You can be in first by 10-plus (right now) and it doesn’t even matter because there is so much time left and so many days to clock in and put a good day’s work in,” reliever Sean Newcomb told the Tribune. “(The current standings are) good to prove what we’ve been doing, but it doesn’t mean anything going day to day.
“We’ve got to keep at it and keep building what we’ve got, being good teammates and putting in good work pregame and being ready for the game each day.”