Third to first

• White Sox play-by-play television announcer Ken 'Hawk' Harrelson will serve as a guest studio analyst on MLB Network's MLB Tonight show during coverage of the ALDS and NLDS on Oct. 4-5. Harrelson will work with various MLB Network hosts and analysts from its studios in Secaucus, New Jersey.

• The top four innings pitched leaders for the 2013 White Sox all will be left-handed pitchers, made up of Chris Sale (209), Jose Quintana (193), Hector Santiago (149) and John Danks (138 1/3). According to STATS LLC, the 1979 season was the last time the White Sox had four lefties leading in innings in Ken Kravec, Rich Wortham, Ross Baumgarten and Steve Trout.

• Numerous White Sox players have praised Ventura for his steady, even-keel demeanor even through this season's struggles. On Thursday, Ventura pointed out that the calmness can change over the course of a year.

"I'm calm out here. You don't know how I am in there," Ventura said. "There's times that I'm louder and more direct [in the clubhouse], and angrier. But if I'm out here, I can be calm out here.

"This isn't always the way it is, just like everybody in there isn't always the way they are when you see them out here. My personality is different in there than it is out here."

Ventura added that there are different times when he's angrier and louder than others, but it hasn't done much to change the '13 record.

"So, again, you try everything to make it better," Ventura said. "This year it just didn't happen."