Reigning MVP collects 700th career RBI
Television cameras captured the warm embrace between hitting coach Frank Menechino and Jose Abreu after the White Sox’ reigning MVP homered against the Twins Tuesday.
If a dugout camera shot paints a thousand words, that one wrote how Abreu is finally, six weeks into the season, finding a groove. And how Menechino has a softer side to go with the one that pushes Abreu hard.
“He wears his emotions on his sleeve,” Menechino said.
“Sometimes he puts me in a bear hug, sometimes he punches me in the back so I have to hide from him sometimes.”
Abreu, who leads the Sox with seven homers and raised his team-leading RBI count to 31 with a run-scoring triple off the center field wall against Twins left-hander J.A. Happ in the first inning and a two-run single against righty Shaun Anderson in the fourth, owned a sub-par hitting line (.231/.329/.446) and .775 OPS going into the game. The Sox, who scored nine runs in three straight games before hitting double digits Wednesday, are averaging more than five a game but they’ve been waiting for Abreu to get hot.
“He’s been working hard and I’ve been on him hard,” Menechino said. “I’ve been challenging him and getting on him a lot [saying] ‘Let’s start getting out of this.’ ’’
Abreu’s work in the cage with Menechino produced a good return. Abreu was 8-for-22 with three doubles, two homers and nine RBI in his last six games.
“And he came up to me, and as much as we butt heads and as much as I get on him and stuff, he appreciates me being in his corner,” Menechino said.
Abreu’s triple that scored Moncada (double) in the first gave him 700 career RBI on an eventful night. He came up limping after banging into the side wall chasing a foul ball, tumbled to the ground in foul territory getting out of the way of Yermin Mercedes head-high foul liner while leading off third, made a diving stop to his right on a ground ball and an over the shoulder catch on a fly ball dropping in short right field.
Menechino said Abreu is always working, trying to figure out what is amiss when things aren’t clicking. But they seem to have uncovered a mechanical glitch, “some stuff going on with his bat path that he wasn’t feeling,” Menechino said.
“He could see it but he wasn’t feeling it,” Menechino said. “And now he’s starting to really pay attention to staying on the fastball and reacting to off-speed stuff. He’s starting to relax and by getting on that fastball he’s starting to get his mechanics back and timing back. It was a big timing issue with him, he was just going back and forth. But he’s starting to relax and he’s starting to get into the groove.”
The Sox were 10-1 when Abreu drives in a run, and looked to be on their way to making it 11-1 by opening a 12-3 lead in the fifth.
Rookie left fielder Andrew Vaughn hit his first home run, reached base his first three times up and scored each time, and catcher Yasmani Grandal homered for the second night in a row. Even light-hitting center fielder Billy Hamilton, without a hit since April 6, had a big offensive night with a triple, double and two singles his first four times to the plate, scoring three runs as a result.
Sox left-hander Dallas Keuchel exited with two outs in the sixth and a 12-4 lead, but Evan Marshall walked two and gave up a two-run single to Luis Arraez, trimming the Sox lead to 12-7.
Looking to improve their AL best record to 21-13 with their fifth win in a row and 13th in 17 games, the Sox were also within reach of going 8-1 against left-handed starting pitchers this season and 22-1 since the start of 2020.
from Chicago Sun-Times - All https://ift.tt/3huaDua
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