'Hollywood-ish': Abreu's slam is 200th HR

José Abreu's eighth-inning grand slam Tuesday night in Seattle turned a three-run White Sox lead into a 10-4 victory over the Mariners.

The 404-foot blast flying into the left-field second deck also reinforced Abreu’s important place in White Sox history. His connection off Keynan Middleton on a first-pitch slider became Abreu’s 200th career home run, making the first baseman the fifth player in franchise history to reach 200, joining Frank Thomas (448), Paul Konerko (432), Harold Baines (221) and Carlton Fisk (214).

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It’s a pretty good group to be included with in Major League history, let alone simply discussing White Sox icons.

“First and foremost I want to thank the White Sox and [White Sox chairman] Jerry [Reinsdorf], of course, because without him I wouldn’t be here. And my teammates,” said Abreu through interpreter Billy Russo. “It’s thanks to them that I’m able to do the stuff I’ve been doing my whole career. I want to celebrate this accolade with them.”

“That’s all you need to do is describe that company, that explains the greatness of the accomplishment,” said White Sox manager Tony La Russa of Abreu. “He’s known as a run producer, but to hit the home runs like that, shows what a complete hitter he is. It’s a Hollywood-ish thing where he hits a grand slam for No. 200.”

That grand slam was Abreu’s fourth overall and second of this seven-game West Coast road trip, concluding Wednesday afternoon. Both grand slams came on first pitches following good at-bats from Luis Robert, who drew walks on both occasions to load the bases.

Robert also homered in support of Lucas Giolito, who struck out 10 over 5 1/3 innings. His first home run of the season in the fifth gave the White Sox a lead they would not relinquish.

“Every day, he’s getting closer and that’s good. That’s good because we don’t feel good every day,” said Abreu of Robert. "We have to work every day hard to try to get as comfortable as we can. You need to work hard and find ways to do your job. That’s what we need to do and that’s what he’s doing. It’s good he’s feeling comfortable and he’s working hard.”

This “work hard” mantra espoused by Abreu defines a “do as I say and as I do” approach. Zack Collins, whose three-run home run in the second gave the White Sox an early lead, spoke of how Abreu was hitting in the cage late Monday, well after the game had ended.

It’s the norm, rather than the exception for Abreu, who is the perfect leader by example for this team with championship aspirations.

“He's always bringing energy to the field every day, working his butt off,” Collins said. “Just showing the young guys and everybody how hard we need to work to go as far as we want to go."

“Isn’t that what you want from your leader? A guy that’s a gamer,” La Russa said. “What are the other guys going to do around him? They’re going to be just like him. They can’t afford, you can’t let your big horse down. He’s as good an asset as any team has. Take the other 29 teams and you take their top leader types, he’s tied with them. He’s really, really special.”

Thanks to some finagling and even arguing by closer Liam Hendriks, Abreu was able to get the milestone baseball returned although he hadn’t seen it by the time his media Zoom arrived postgame. Abreu also became the sixth Cuban-born player in Major League history to reach 200, trailing Rafael Palmeiro (569), Jose Canseco (462), Tony Pérez (379), Tony Oliva (220) and Kendrys Morales (213).

It was a great moment for the team, coming at the end of a second straight decisive victory, helping to wash away a 1-3 start in Anaheim.

“We all love Pito so much. It's unreal,” said Giolito, who tied Billy Pierce for sixth place in franchise history with his 11th double-digit strikeout effort. “So happy for him, 200 home runs and many, many more to come.

“Any time someone on our team, especially a guy like him -- a big time leader for us, he's been through it all -- gets to enjoy a nice accomplishment like that, we all get to enjoy it. It's that family environment that we have."