Veteran White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu on Sunday homered for the fourth straight at-bat and for the sixth time in the three-game series against the crosstown Cubs (CHW-CHC GameTracker).
Here's a look at his second-inning blast off Yu Darvish:
Abreu went deep.
— MLB (@MLB) August 23, 2020
This is a new tweet. pic.twitter.com/HgSxwdfSOG
That one left the bat at 107.6 mph and traveled 449 feet. To repeat: Abreu homered in four-straight at-bats, and hit six homers in the three-game set against the North Siders. That makes for a bit of franchise history:
José Abreu has 6 home runs in this series against the Cubs.
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) August 23, 2020
That's the most HR by a White Sox player in any series in franchise history.
And:
José Abreu is the first White Sox player since Eddie Collins in 1923 with multiple hits & 4+ total bases in 5 straight games.
— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) August 23, 2020
He has one hit & 4 total bases so far today.
Not bad company, that. Abreu also had six home runs in nine at-bats, and as Scott Merkin notes his White Sox have at this point hit 28 homers in their last 54 innings(!). Not surprisingly, the Sox presently lead the majors with 55 home runs on the season. Also not surprisingly, Rick Renteria's is squarely in playoff position in the AL.
As for Abreu, he's now slashing a robust .328/.366/.681 with 11 home runs on the season. Coming into Sunday, the 33-year-old also ranked in 92nd percentile this season for average exit velocity and the 95th percentile for hard-hit rate. All of that is especially encouraging given that Abreu has shown signs of decline in recent seasons.
Given the impressive young core that's in place and the targeted free agent additions of the most recent offseason, the White Sox this season are under some pressure to take the next step in their rebuild. Thanks in large measure to the power outputs of Abreu and the rest of the lineup, they're on target to achieve that goal and then some.
