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Levine: White Sox Continue To Build Team Confidence

By Bruce Levine--

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The self-belief is building daily for this surging Chicago White Sox team. Manager Robin Ventura has stayed the course with his players while keeping an eye out for wavering confidence levels.

After a slumping start to the season for some of his roster, Ventura has been pleased with his group's resilience so far in 2015.

"We collectively have played better and had better at-bats," Ventura said about his club's recent success, which included a six-game winning streak. "There is a certain element of luck involved. There totally has to be an attitude of just sticking with it. You have to think things will be going your way and keep having a positive look at things."

Any manager worth his lineup card evaluates his team's heart beat on a daily basis. This would be especially true with an underachieving team like the White Sox were during the first 25 games of the season.

"You can sense these things when you are talking to them," Ventura said about his players' stress indicators. "You talk to these guys daily and get a sense of where they are at. Some guys are (up) more than others on certain days. For me, when you start winning a little bit, it starts lifting up the confidence of the guys who didn't feel good about themselves. At that point, everybody begins to feel better."

A six-game winning streak had certainly done that for this team recently. After three seasons and 30 games as the White Sox manager, Ventura has learned what to look for from his players during times, good and bad.

"I believe you always learn more from struggles," he said. "As tough as the early part of the season was, I think you learn you can always bounce back. There will be another point of the season where it may not go well. By going through what we did already, you have the ability and faith to bounce back from another tough period of the year again."

The White Sox have come from behind to win in 12 of their 18 victories this season.

"Winning close games is always important," Ventura said. "Winning those close games, it's essential to score runs late. You learn a lot about your guys and their make-up."

Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.

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