Robin Ventura Takes Pressure To Win 'Seriously'

(CBS) After his White Sox were swept in a three-game series by the defending AL champion Royals to open the season, manager Robin Ventura admitted he feels pressure, but it has nothing to do with a small three-game sample size. It has everything to do with the expectations he's placing on himself to lead a revamped team with plenty of talent to great success.

"On the outside, there are probably people putting pressure on us," Ventura said in an interview on the Spiegel and Goff Show on Friday. "But for in here, I've been around baseball enough to understand it. That's part of being a manager. You better have thick skin and do what you think is right and stay to your convictions. I think for me, the way I played and the way I go about my business in here, that's the stuff you concern yourself with. I'm not going to sit there and get pressured by outside concerns or people saying there's more pressure.

"There's pressure to win every day, and I take that seriously and stick to what my convictions are.

"It's going to get better than it is now. For us, it's just three games, and we're looking to head in the other direction … I'm not going to judge these guys on three games at the beginning of the year."

After leading the White Sox to an 85-77 season in 2012, Ventura has directed teams that have gone 63-99 and 73-89 the past two years.

Ventura can take whatever criticism is thrown his way, he said, including that of his team making sloppy mistakes in the field or basepaths.

The White Sox host the Twins on Friday afternoon in their home opener.

"It's fair," Ventura said of the criticism sent the White Sox' way. "We're working on it. There's things, you got a new guy in there (in Micah Johnson at second base), that's part of learning that communication and learning how to do that. It's a new guy at second. There's going to be some young-player things that happen. And you have to be able to overcome that and get better at it."