White Sox showing discipline, drawing walks

ARLINGTON — The White Sox walked seven times against the Rangers on Tuesday night, marking the American League-leading fourth time this season they’ve drawn at least that many bases on balls and highlighting what manager Robin Ventura says is a conscious effort to be more disciplined at the plate.

The number of free passes a team takes depends to some degree on how opponents pitch to them, whether by choice or sheer wildness, and the White Sox have seen a lower percentage of strikes than all but one AL team, the Rangers. But over time, an offense’s selectiveness at the plate becomes a key factor as well, which helps explain why Chicago has been ahead in the count in more at-bats than any AL team.

“You definitely want to be ahead in counts. I know in the last couple of years, we haven’t really done a good job of that, especially swinging outside of the zone,” Ventura said. “There’s probably a fair amount of pitchers going off of what we used to be and not throwing the ball in the zone. If you’re going to swing at balls, why throw strikes?”

The White Sox were 14th in the AL last season with a 6.7 percent walk rate, but they have improved to third in the league in 2016, walking 9.3 percent of the time.

Adam Eaton led the White Sox with 16 walks entering Wednesday’s 6-5 loss to the Rangers, with Melky Cabrera and …

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