José Abreu broke the tie in the sixth. Then he just kept breaking stuff.
After homering six times in Friday night's romp at Wrigley, the White Sox belted five more tonight. Abreu had three of them, and none earlier than the sixth inning. They all mattered.
He opened the sixth by deflecting an elevated Kyle Hendricks sinker over the wall in right to give the White Sox a 3-2 lead in what had been a well-executed game.
The game was more than half over, and yet Abreu was just getting started. In the eighth, he came to the plate after falling behind 0-2, only to get two unbelievably poor pitches from Rowan Wick. He fouled off a grooved fastball, but Wick responded by hanging a curveball, and Abreu didn't miss that one. It resulted in two runs and a 5-2 lead.
And when Evan Marshall got tagged for a run in the eighth, Grandal and Abreu teamed up again. This time it was in the form of back-to-back solo shots off Duane Underwood Jr. with two outs. The insurance was again appreciated, because Alex Colomé made a bit of a mess in the ninth inning, although he came just short of bringing the tying run to the plate.
Abreu went 4-for-4 with a walk to lead the way. Throw in a Luis Robert two-run rocket in the second that opened the scoring, and the White Sox have 11 homers over the first two games of this series. That gives them 27 dingers over their last seven games, which Elias calls a record. Not by surprise, they've won seven straight, including their first series against a good team this year.
While the offense powered its way to the victory, a creative White Sox pitching arrangement made it hold up. Reynaldo López wasn't an opener in the classic sense, as he threw 3⅓ innings on 50 pitches. He did serve as an opener in the larger sense, in that he let a starter with endurance issues begin his evening against the bottom of the order.
López only allowed one hit over his night, but wildness with his secondary pitches made that double count for two runs. He plunked Willson Contreras to start the second, walked Jason Heyward, then allowed a ringing double to Victor Caratini. It ricocheted off the ivy and past Eloy Jiménez, who was trapped too close to the wall, and both runners came home to tie the game at 2.
López's fastball wasn't as powerful as we've seen it, but he held his velocity at 94 with some movement, so we've seen worse. The secondary stuff sharpened up as his start progressed, but Renteria didn't get greedy.
After López got the righty Contreras to pop out to open the fourth, Renteria lifted his starter for González to face the largely lefty portion of the North Side lineup. González got the game through seven with 3⅔ innings of typically inefficient shutout ball. That was good enough for his first win with the White Sox, more than 12 years after his first major-league victory.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox were just 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position, but all the homers makes that easier to take.
*Yoán Moncada was the only White Sox held hitless, as he went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts. He's still not moving well.
*Abreu is the first White Sox player with five homers over two games. He passed Magglio Ordonez for fifth on the franchise's all-time list.
