Beckham returns after recovering from wrist injury

CHICAGO -- Gordon Beckham was back in the lineup for the White Sox on Friday after missing five games due to a sore left wrist. He strained a ligament while swinging a weighted bat in batting practice warmups prior to last Friday's game against Atlanta.

"It's not getting worse," Beckham said before the series opener against Kansas City Friday. "I flipped two days ago and the next day it didn't get worse. I don't know if it got a ton better, and then today just getting ready for the game it feels OK."

Beckham wouldn't say how close to 100 percent the wrist is, but he said it felt good enough to get back to game action.

"I'm close to healthy," Beckham said. "There's definitely some soreness there, but I feel a lot better than I did last weekend so we'll go from there."

Beckham is hitting .325 in a season that was already shortened by a fractured hamate bone in the same wrist. He said there would be a little hesitancy getting back onto the field, but he's looking forward to contributing, especially at the plate.

"This is a totally separate incident from the other injury," Beckham said. "Yeah, there's a little bit of hesitancy in terms of [not having] played four or five days so you have to just get up there and battle, at least for the first couple of games, get back in the groove and pick up some hits and be right back where I was, hopefully."

Manager Robin Ventura said that Beckham has been itching to get back into the lineup and is ready to go.

"Yeah, he's ready to go," Ventura said before Friday's contest. "I think, you know, I think he doesn't like sitting on the bench too much, so he was a little bit restless the last few days, but he's feeling better. Again, with everybody we've got ... you've got to make them healthy, and once he got to that point where [White Sox head athletic trainer Herm Schneider] cleared him, you know, we could put him in there today."

Ventura added that he doesn't foresee Beckham having to compensate for the wrist on defense.

"Again, that was part of not having him in there the last couple of days," Ventura said. "When he first did it you could see him compensate for it on throws down to second, things like that. So that was more the compensation, making sure he defensively felt comfortable and he could make those plays."