Abreu Carries White Sox to Win, Angels Rout the Yankees
On Friday, the Chicago White Sox (12-12) had Jose Abreu lead them to a 9-6 win over the Tampa Bay Rays (10-13) while setting a rookie record along the way.
It was a wild ninth inning. At the top of it, Evan Longoria hit a two-run homer to give Tampa a 6-4 lead but the White Sox said not so fast. Abreu stepped up at the bottom of the ninth with two outs and hit a grand slam to give his team the win.
Jose Abreu
This home run represented his second one of the night (first one in the third inning) for Abreu and catapulted the rookie to a record-setting ninth homer for the month of April. This surpassed the previous MLB record set by Albert Pujols (eight) back in 2001. Carlos Delgado and Kent Hrbek also have eight April rookie home runs in the books.
Abreu snapped a second record on Friday from his six RBIs in the game. For the month, he now has 27, which ties him for the most rookie RBIs in April. Yep, the other player is again Pujols.
Through a translator, Abreu said of his home runs via the Associated Press, “I really didn’t have any expectations. As a matter of fact, I was talking to Albert Pujols during spring training and he told me, ‘Hey, don’t worry about hitting the home runs early in the season since it’s your first season and all that. So I wasn’t trying to hit them — they have just happened.”
Before Abreu’s game-winning homer, team captain Paul Konerko exchanged words in the ninth with Tampa’s closer Grant Balfour (0-1). Konerko was pinch-hitting and walked. On his way to first, he and Balfour started shouting at each other. Konerko said later that he thinks Balfour was venting his frustration from his performance.
Along with Abreu’s good night, Tyler Flowers incurred two RBIs and two hits. Erik Johnson started pitching for Chicago and had a rough second inning as he allowed four runs–all with two outs. After the fourth run, he exited the game and Matt Joyce took the mound; he set a team-record with five walks.
For the night, Tampa tied a club record with its 11 walks.
Rays Chris Archer pitched six-plus innings, giving up four runs with nine hits.
On Saturday, the two teams will play Game 2 of this four-game series. In a battle of the southpaws, Cesar Ramos (0-1, 4.91 ERA) will pitch for the Rays while John Danks (2-0, 2.84 ERA) will get Chicago’s starting nod.
The Sox will get another win (-115, 8.5 o/u). Looking ahead, they are 66/1 to win the 2014 World Series while the Rays are 16/1.
Albert Pujols
In other MLB news, while Pujols saw one of his rookie records fall, he was on the road to set one of his own on Friday. In a 13-1 drubbing of the New York Yankees (13-10), Pujols hit career home run No. 501; he has nine for the month of April. This represents the best for the league and ties him with Brian Downing from his 1986 play with his April Angels franchise record.
Pujols wasn’t the only Los Angeles Angel (11-11) to hit a home run in Friday’s rout. Ian Stewart hit a two-run homer in third off of Hiroki Kuroda (2-2) as well as Erick Aybar and Colin Cowgill both hitting one in the seventh inning.
Angels pitcher C.J. Wilson was on the mound for six innings and allowed one run. He said of the game via the Associated Press, “It was a fun game for us after the off day and after the way the last game went. We’re hitting balls all over the place.”
On Saturday with Angels lefty Hector Santiago (0-3, 3.68 ERA) and Yankees lefty Vidal Nuno (0-0, 6.75 ERA) pitching, New York gets the win (-115, 9 o/u).
