Eaton activated from disabled list

HOUSTON -- The bad news Sunday for the White Sox came in the form of Jose Abreu being placed on the 15-day disabled list with posterior tibial tendinitis in his left ankle. The good news arrived in the form of leadoff man and center fielder Adam Eaton returning from his injury rehab assignment with Triple-A Charlotte and being activated from the DL.

Needless to say, being out of action since May 3 with a strained right hamstring did not sit well with the energetic Eaton.

"Awful. It was awful, but I'm pumped to be back, for sure," said Eaton, who started Sunday's series finale in Houston. "It's not fun. It really isn't. I get stir crazy really easy.

"When you can't contribute to the team, I'm still relatively new here and I want to contribute as much as I can to kind of win over the guys' faith in me in the outfield and at bat. Not to be able to do that definitely takes away from my day and my personality. I'm very excited to be able to contribute to the team and help the team win."

Eaton finished 2-for-6 with one RBI and one stolen base in a doubleheader with Charlotte on Friday. He felt good running in Oakland with the White Sox but knew he needed to be game-tested.

"It's good to go down and get some confidence. That was the key," Eaton said. "Game speed is a lot different than just running around the field. It was good to steal a base, and I tracked a few balls down. Kind of getting that confidence that you can go out and do it at game speed."