Abreu, Quintana hit some milestone numbers

CHICAGO -- White Sox slugger Jose Abreu reached a personal milestone by connecting for home run No. 30 leading off the seventh during a 5-3 loss in 10 innings to the Royals on Wednesday night at U.S. Cellular Field.

As usual, reaching an individual plateau wasn't quite as easy for starting pitcher Jose Quintana. But while certain parts of Quintana's final season numbers aren't as eye-popping as Abreu's totals, the two arguably have been at the top of the South Siders' individual performances in a truly down year for the team.

Quintana was trying to pick up win No. 10 in a season for the first time in his career, although Quintana has never had an ERA above 3.76 in a single campaign. He gave up three runs on five hits over nine innings, striking out eight and walking two, but Quintana finished with his Major League-high 52nd no-decision since 2012.

Video: KC@CWS: Ventura on great outing from Quintana

Earning that 10th win was important for Quintana. But nobody around the southpaw believes this decision was needed to validate his success.

"It comes down to we don't score enough for him," manager Robin Ventura said. "That's pretty obvious. Again, that means nothing as far as how good he is. We know how good he is and we just wish we'd score more for him."

"I haven't helped him out. I've blown a couple of his games so he should have 10," said closer David Robertson, who suffered the loss by allowing Eric Hosmer's two-out, two-run homer in the 10th. "It's unfortunate, I wish I would have been better at my job so that he had 10 wins but, his innings, his ERA, strikeouts, walks, everything shows he's a quality pitcher and he gets the job done."

In support of Robertson's assessment, Quintana set a single-season personal high with 206 1/3 innings. And for a third straight year, Quintana reached 200-plus innings, 30-plus starts (32) and 160-plus strikeouts (177). Javier Vazquez was the last White Sox pitcher to accomplish such a feat from 2006-08. Quintana joins Madison Bumgarner, Felix Hernandez, Jeff Samardzija, Max Scherzer and James Shields as the only Major League pitchers to hit those totals in every season since 2013.

"He was great, outstanding, you can use all of them," Ventura said. "We thought we had a chance there to get him one. Again, just his consistency is always the impressive part and you feel bad because this guy pitched great. He always goes out there and gives you a chance."

"That's my first goal every year, to have 200 innings, to be healthy all season," Quintana said. "I'm happy with my first goal. But it's not about me. It's about the team, and we try next year, we'll have a better year."

Abreu joins Albert Pujols (2001-02) and Ryan Braun (2007-08) as the only players in MLB history with 30-plus homers in each of their first two seasons, and Abreu is the only American League player to do so. He needs one RBI to join Pujols as the only players with 30 and 100 in their first two.

Luckily for Abreu, he has more individual control over his milestones than Quintana.

"We'll get him one more RBI," Ventura said of Abreu. "He was pretty happy with his home run and he should be."