White Sox' slide continues with loss to Tigers

As the losses continue to mount for the White Sox, it's time to start looking to 2015.

Actually, maybe not.

After Friday night's 7-1 loss to the Tigers at U.S. Cellular Field, manager Robin Ventura said it's not the right time to be focusing on next season.

"You have pieces," Ventura said. "There are pieces, but you just have to get better and who knows how that's going to go in the off-season. We like pieces that we have and you just continue to build on it.

"Right now is probably not the time to be looking that way because you're probably going to look different when you go into the off-season."

The Sox have idenitifed Jose Abreu, Chris Sale, Adam Eaton, Avisail Garcia, Jose Quintana and possibly Conor Gillaspie as the players to build around moving forward.

But as Ventura mentioned - and as general manager Rick Hahn said earlier in the homestand - many more changes must be made before the White Sox can seriously consider themselves contenders.

The White Sox (60-74) have lost 9 of their last 10.

"It's not fun," Eaton said. "We don't want to get used to that here. I think the will to win is here. I think eventually we'll come out on top. Maybe first we have to fail in order to succeed."

Abreu aching:

Jose Abreu appeared to tweak his left hamstring running from first base to third in the first inning, but the overwhelming American League favorite stayed in the game until the ninth, when Dayan Viciedo replaced him at first base.

Abreu, who was 3-for-3 while raising his batting average to .316, figures to get one game of Saturday's doubleheader off.

"He's fine," manager Robin Ventura said. "I think he's just tired. That's a part of it when you do things like that. He's been on base a lot. Just trying to give him a breather, so you get him out of there."

Tailing off:

After coming out swinging when he returned from the disabled list on Aug. 16, Avsail Garcia has been in a steady slide.

The Sox' right fielder has 4 hits in his last 19 at-bats and he's struck out 13 times in his last 27 trips to the plate.

"I think he's been all right," manager Robin Ventura said. "You are taking about a guy that hasn't seen a lot of action. You just watch it. I think there's still some development in there that's going on. Anytime a guy that has that long a stretch of being on the DL, then you come back, he'll get a shot of adrenaline right when he gets out there and then this is the tough part for him.

"He has to go through this part and then once he settles in, you'll see a better idea of what you are going to get in the future."