Venable ejected early on in Civale's White Sox debut

ARLINGTON -- In his first appearance for his new team, Aaron Civale threw more pitches than any White Sox starter has all season -- but manager Will Venable only saw 13 of them in person.

Venable had to watch Civale’s other 91 pitches on TV in the visiting clubhouse at Globe Life Field after he was ejected by home plate umpire Marvin Hudson in the first inning of Sunday’s 2-1 loss to the Rangers. Hudson rang Venable for arguing balls and strikes from the dugout, and upon being tossed, Venable hurried up the steps and onto the field to say his piece to Hudson.

No one but Hudson and Venable know exactly what they said in the spirited exchange -- but if those 35 seconds of dialogue appeared in a movie, kids under 17 wouldn’t be allowed to go see it in the theater without their parents.

“There was early frustration, we’ll call it,” Venable said after the game. “A couple calls that we thought didn’t go our way. They were close pitches -- and I just had to go talk about it.”

Speaking of kids and parents: strangely, the second ejection of Venable’s managerial career occurred on Father’s Day -- and the first happened on Mother’s Day last month. But that’s purely an odd coincidence for Venable, a devoted family man. He doesn’t imagine his wife, Kathryn, or his four kids will ever make too much fun of him for it.

“They always support me with whatever happens,” Venable said.

Though they were swept by the Rangers, the White Sox lost by a combined four runs over the three-game series. And though they remain at the bottom of the AL standings at 23-49, the White Sox are becoming considerably more competitive this season than they were in their record-setting 121-loss campaign last year.

With an average run differential of -0.9, the White Sox are a full run per game more competitive than they were last season (-1.9).

As for Sunday, what likely set Venable off happened before any runs were scored by either team. In the first at-bat of the game against Rangers leadoff hitter Josh Smith, Civale’s first and sixth pitches were within a hair of the outside edge of the plate, but both were called balls.

Smith’s walk was the first of three bases-on-balls Civale issued that inning, and Venable was tossed midway through the second one. The newly acquired right-hander’s command issues continued long after Venable departed the dugout.

Civale fell behind in the count against six of the first seven hitters and threw first-pitch balls to 13 of the 24 batters he faced. He threw 65 strikes and 39 balls, contributing to his hefty pitch count.

“More first-pitch strikes is definitely the target moving forward, and definitely it’s been a whirlwind of a week,” said Civale, whom the White Sox picked up from the Brewers in a trade for Andrew Vaughn on Friday.

Though Civale escaped the eventful first inning without yielding a run, a second-inning walk to Adolis García led to the Rangers’ first run when Ezequiel Duran doubled García home. The other run Civale surrendered was also earned, but enabled by an error, in the fifth inning.

For the most part, Civale persevered and worked out of most of the jams he encountered. He allowed six hits and walked four.

“Credit to him for grinding through that,” Venable said.

Civale had little familiarity with his new team. He only learned Friday morning that he had been traded. He flew to the Dallas/Fort Worth area that afternoon and donned a White Sox uniform for the first time Saturday, the day before his first start.

“The first couple innings, just getting back out there and settling in, getting used to a new team, a new catcher and all of the above, I just did my best to go out there and compete,” Civale said. “It wasn’t the cleanest outing ... we’ll work on the things that we need to work on moving forward.”

There’s work to do, but there’s one thing Civale learned almost immediately in his White Sox career: he has a manager who will stand up for his guys.

“Anytime a manager goes and fights for the players, that’s an awesome sign,” Civale. "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 what’s important.”