Sale walks fine line with in-game exchange

CHICAGO -- White Sox left-hander Chris Sale apologized to manager Robin Ventura on Monday night after taking umbrage at being called on to intentionally walk Miguel Cabrera in the fifth inning of a 7-3 loss to the Tigers and then expressing his disappointment afterwards.

That disappointment manifested itself in a spirited mound conversation between Sale and White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper when Cooper visited the mound after Sale walked Prince Fielder unintentionally in the following at-bat.

"I was pretty embarrassed with how I reacted to that last night," said Sale. "No matter how confident I am in myself for what I think might be right, at the end of the day, it's his call. And I have to respect that. And learn from my experiences -- good, bad or indifferent -- learn from it and move forward.

"To be honest with you, I didn't even think it was really that big of an issue. But it is what it is. I've got to start learning from every situation. With every bad, you try to take some good out of it and try to learn from the situation."

Sale referred to Ventura and Cooper as just like his family. And the fiercely competitive All-Star knows that arguments within a family rarely break that strong bond completely.

"We're in the middle of a game and want to win, [against] a division rival," Sale said. "You get into the heat of battle sometimes and exchange some words. It's going to take a whole heck of a lot more than an in-game misunderstanding to throw us off track. We've cleared the air and we're moving forward from it and brushing it under the rug."

"I get where he's at," Ventura said. "I get the emotions of him being a pitcher and what he means, but he has to understand my job and being in my seat what I have to do."

Ventura has had those same sorts of conversations with his kids about who's in charge, but added with a laugh "not about pitching, no."