ARLINGTON, Texas — Manger Will Venable wasn’t around long for starting pitcher Aaron Civale’s debut with the Chicago White Sox.
Venable took exception to some ball-strike calls from plate umpire Marvin Hudson and got ejected three batters into the bottom of the first inning Sunday against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field.
“There was early frustration, you could call it, and obviously you saw what happened,” Venable said.
Civale appreciated what he saw from his new skipper.
“Anytime the manager goes and fights for the players, that’s an awesome sign,” Civale said. “When you have each other’s backs, that’s how you know you’re in a good position and the culture’s good. When you’re fighting for each other, that’s important.”
The Sox put up a fight but suffered another close loss, falling 2-1 in front of a sellout crowd of 38,037.
Civale, acquired in Friday’s trade with the Milwaukee Brewers for first baseman Andrew Vaughn, allowed two runs on six hits with four strikeouts and four walks in five innings.
“Definitely not the cleanest,” Civale said of his outing. “A lot more balls than I would have wanted going into the game. Some of the game plan is these guys are aggressive in that lineup. More first-pitch strikes is definitely the target moving forward, and definitely it’s been a whirlwind of a week.
“First couple of innings you’re just getting back out there and settling in and getting used to the new team and the catcher and all of the above.”
Civale walked leadoff hitter Josh Smith on a 3-2 pitch that, according to MLB Statcast, touched the outside corner.
Venable was tossed after a 2-2 pitch to Corey Seager was called a ball. Statcast recorded the pitch as off the plate away to the left-handed batter. Venable and Hudson had a heated discussion after the ejection.
“Just a couple of calls we thought didn’t go our way,” Venable said.
It was his second ejection of the season. The first came on Mother’s Day. Sunday was Father’s Day.
Civale walked three in the first but made it through the inning without allowing a run.
His control battle continued in the second when he issued a one-out free pass to Adolis García. The Rangers made him pay for that walk with a two-out RBI double by Ezequiel Duran.
“For me it’s not going to cancel it out in the box score, but anytime you get a double play after a walk (like the Sox did in the first), that’s an improvement over what you were just doing,” Civale said. “Until Adolis scored, a walk hadn’t hurt me, and typically if you let a guy get on base via walk, those guys score.
“Sometimes it catches up to you, sometimes you stay ahead of it. Just something we can work on improving moving forward, and as the comfort level gets higher and higher here, it’ll just settle into that.”
Civale settled in, with the only other Texas run coming on a sacrifice fly by Marcus Semien in the fifth.
“This is my third time doing it,” Civale said of being traded during a season in his seven-year big-league career. “It never gets easier. There’s comfort and experience that you have. But every time it’s new and it’s a challenge in itself. You’re trying to make that adjustment as quick as you can and that’s the game.
“It’s a game of adjustments. Was out there just trying to compete and I wasn’t filling up the zone like I would have liked to. Just did my best to compete with what I had.”
Miguel Vargas homered in the sixth for the lone Sox run.
They had runners on first and third with one out in the seventh, but Josh Rojas got thrown out trying to steal second.
“It was just one of those plays where we had a little something on the pitcher (reliever Cole Winn), thought it was a good opportunity to go and it just didn’t work out,” Venable said of the stolen-base attempt.
Mike Tauchman then struck out looking to end the inning.
The Sox had runners on second and third with two outs in the eighth, but Edgar Quero lined out to Seager at shortstop. The Sox left eight on base while suffering their fifth straight defeat. Three of the losses during that stretch have been by one run.
Luis Robert Jr. was a late scratch from the lineup with a sore right thumb. He’s day to day and anticipates being back in the lineup for Tuesday’s series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals at Rate Field.
“I think it’s going to be good,” Robert said of the thumb through an interpreter after the game.
Robert entered as a pinch runner in the eighth but was stranded on third. The Sox (23-49) were limited to six runs while getting swept in the three-game series.
“There were pitches in the zone we weren’t able to turn around,” Venable said. “At the same time, we weren’t able to draw the walks like we had previously. Take the day off (Monday) and regroup and get back to our approach that we had had previous to this series.”
