Ventura wants to ‘play for today’ down stretch

KANSAS CITY — With Sunday’s 10-3 loss to the Royals, the White Sox officially were eliminated from American League Central title contention.

Their elimination number stood at 5 in the AL Wild Card race entering Monday’s series finale at Kauffman Stadium. But seven teams had at least a four-game lead over the White Sox, making that race pretty much impossible as well.

It’s the completion of a precipitous fall, after the White Sox stood at 23-10 with a six-game lead in the division after an extra-inning victory on May 9 in Texas. Since that high point, the White Sox have a 49-67 mark and have lost 20 games in the standings to the Indians.

Rehashing the disappointment wasn’t on manager Robin Ventura’s agenda during his pregame media session on Monday.

“We’re just playing games right now,” Ventura said. “We’ve gone through the period of all that stuff, and they’re playing to win today’s game. That’s it.

“That’s all I can ask for right now. Not worried about looking back a month or four months. I want them to play for today.”

Unfortunately for the White Sox, pride …

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