Remember the power-packed White Sox offense launching a single-month franchise-record 54 home runs during August?
That group was present and accounted for during a 7-4 victory over the Royals Friday night at Kauffman Stadium, but there were no home runs. Just 14 hits, only two of them for extra bases, and scoring runs of the manufactured variety.
“We have a really good offensive team,” said White Sox left fielder Eloy Jiménez, who had three hits and one RBI. “So, we can score runs without homers. And with homers. We showed them what we can do and we just keep grinding, working hard and going out and playing hard.”
“They ground out some at-bats, they did a few things,” White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. “If you put a good approach, have some good at-bats, get some runners on base, it doesn't necessarily take a homer to drive in runs."
José Abreu joined Jiménez with two of those hits, extending his hitting streak to 18 and raising his Major League-leading RBI total to 38. Abreu’s latest big hit came via a two-out sixth-inning double off of reliever Jesse Hahn that scored Tim Anderson and Yoán Moncada.
Abreu pulled a slider to left, turning a 4-3 White Sox advantage into a 6-3 lead. White Sox personnel seem to be running out of superlatives to describe Abreu’s Most Valuable Player-caliber season, but they have no problem continuing with their praise.
“What can I say? Abreu is one of the best hitters I’ve ever seen,” Jiménez said. “He’s a super clutch hitter. Every time he’s at the plate, I learn something. He tries to show us something to learn every night, every at-bat. It’s really good to see him produce those runs for us.”
“I'm impressed. Obviously it's an impressive feat, 18 games. It's not easy to do,” Renteria said. “It's not easy to get a big league hit every single day. I'm glad he's doing it. He's been performing very, very well, again coming up with some big hits, driving in some big runs for us and continuing to show everybody why he is who he is."
Dane Dunning came one out short of his first career victory in his third career start, although Renteria said leaving Dunning in with two on and two out in the fifth to face one more batter was not an option. The rookie right-hander struck out four, walked four and allowed three runs on five hits over 4 2/3 innings and a career-high 88 pitches.
The Royals scored two in the fourth against Dunning to tie the game at three. But Dunning pitched out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam by retiring Whit Merrifield on a pop-up to Anderson and Hunter Dozier on a ground ball to Moncada.
“I thought we had a really good plan of attack,” Dunning said. “[James] McCann was awesome back there calling pitches. Honestly, I wanted to just pound the zone and try to get the ball in the defense’s hands.”
A second consecutive White Sox victory raised their overall record to 24-15 and lifted their record against the Royals to 7-1 this season. Chicago is also 17-10 against the American League Central, where the White Sox now once again reside atop the division.
Cleveland’s loss to Milwaukee and the Twins’ doubleheader sweep of the Tigers on Friday means both teams sit just one-half game behind the White Sox. This victory finished with closer Alex Colomé’s 40-pitch save covering 1 1/3 innings and facing the game-tying run in the ninth.
“I've said it all along: You take no one for granted, no matter who you're playing,” Renteria said. “All these guys are professionals on both sides of the field, and they're trying to do their best and they're grinding their games out, they're grinding at-bats out.
“You've got to finish it. You've got to close it out. Today was another example. Yesterday was an example of it as well. They kept grinding, they keep pushing us. They keep getting after it. We were fortunate enough to be able to get out of it today."