Jose Abreu has been on a tear and looks like he is going to bring home the MVP title. The last time a White Sox player won the MVP award was in 1994. 1B Frank Thomas (.353AVG 101RBI 38HR 106R 113G) won his second MVP in a row.
Abreu has been the best player for the White Sox. He (.317AVG 13HR 40RBI 27R 40GP) leads the MLB in RBIs and is fourth with 13 home runs. In Saturday’s victory, he went 1-4 with a run, 2RBI, and a home run, getting the White Sox on the board right away. A lead the team wouldn’t give up for the rest of the game. After their 5-3 win against the Royals, the White Sox sit at 25-15 and are first in the AL Central. They are only a few games behind the Tampa Bay Rays (27-13) for the American League’s overall best record.
Abreu has always been the best positional player for the White Sox, and he led the American League in RBIs last season despite the White Sox’ inconsistency. This season, the White Sox are the talk of the MLB, and Abreu deserves this award more than anyone on the team.
Lucas Giolito (6IP 5H 3ER 0BB 9K 1W 104PC) was pitching great and shouldn’t have given up more than 1ER. Rick Renteria decided to run him out for the seventh since he hadn’t hit 90 pitches yet. That turned out to be the wrong choice. The bullpen came in and shut down the rest of the inning and the game.
Giolito was the first starting pitcher to go at least five innings for the White Sox in the last eight games. A welcome reprieve for a very taxed bullpen. The pen (3IP 1H 0ER 2BB 2K) was fantastic even though they still had to pitch three innings.
Tim Anderson (2-3 2R 1RBI) and Yasmani Grandal (2-4 1R 2RBI 1HR) provided the extra offense to help Abreu for their third straight win against the Royals. Abreu also moved his hit streak to 19 games, which is the longest streak this season.
Tomorrow Dallas Keuchel takes the mound to try to get the sweep against the Royals. The White Sox have found themselves after an ugly start to the week against the Twins. They need to keep this momentum going into Sunday, get the sweep, and a well deserved day off.