CHICAGO – Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu broke a major league record on Sunday when he homered in his first at-bat against the Cubs, his fourth straight record appearance with a home game and sixth in the series.
“I’m never happy with what I do,” Abreu said after the 2-1 loss to the Cubs. “I can do better. I can do more. That’s why I work so hard. But it feels absolutely good to do something like that. I would rather have the win today.”
The home team was the only number of the game for the White Sox, who have scored their past 20 runs through the long ball. That’s three runs scrambled for a high mark set by the Milwaukee Brewers last season.
Abreu struck out a 2-1 cut from Yu Darvish to center-left in the second inning, a day after hitting his home games against three different pitchers in the last three at-bats. His six home games over the weekend tie him in with four others for the most part in a 3-game series in the live ball era, dating back to 1920. It is also the most of any player in any series of any length this season .
Entering this series with the Cubs, Abreu scored ties for 20th in home games in the American League .. He now leads the AL in homers with 11.
The loss snatched the White Stripe from the White Sox 7 game, but went through a stripe from home run for the club. They have hit 30 home runs in the past nine games. That is by far the most in baseball over that time frame.
“We know what we are capable of doing,” Abreu said. “We can not play here after the playoffs. At the end of the season we will see what the result is.”
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