Abreu makes Tigers pay with 2 HRs, 7 RBIs

CHICAGO -- When American League Most Valuable Player Award talk comes up for the 2020 season, José Abreu and Tim Anderson are front and center in the conversation.

And if Detroit manager Ron Gardenhire had a vote following his team’s 14-0 loss to the White Sox on Saturday, it sounds as if he would split it between the two.

• Box score

“They've got great hitters. It starts with their leadoff guy, one of the better players in this league at a young age,” Gardenhire said. “And you can go down through there. Abreu, he might be one of the best hitters in the game, in my opinion. And if I've only seen him facing my team, he is the best hitter, because he just kills us. I mean, goodness gracious."

• Sox gearing up for final push to postseason

Anderson and Abreu finished with four hits apiece as the White Sox (29-16) improved to 8-1 against the Tigers and 20-3 overall against Detroit, Kansas City and Pittsburgh. Anderson scored two runs, but Abreu one-upped him by hitting three-run home runs in consecutive innings and matching a single-game career high with seven RBIs.

Abreu produced a career-high five runs scored and became the first White Sox player in franchise history to record at least four hits, two homers, seven RBIs and five runs in a game. He ranks third in club history with 17 multi-homer games, trailing only Paul Konerko (29) and Frank Thomas (26), all of this coming one game after his career-high 22-game hit streak was shut down.

Anderson’s .358 batting average tops the AL and his 38 runs scored are tied with Mike Trout for the lead. Abreu’s 47 RBIs lead the Majors and his 15 home runs trail only Trout and Luke Voit, who have 16. MVP? It’s a tough call between the immense output of these two.

“I can’t brag about these kids any more than I already have done in the past,” White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. “They are just showing you what we all believe they are capable of doing.”

“[Abreu] is having an incredible season,” said White Sox winning pitcher Reynaldo López, through interpreter Billy Russo. “I’m just glad that he’s on our team because I can’t imagine how difficult it is for the other pitcher to face him. As always, he’s working hard. He’s very committed to his routine. And I think you guys know what he’s been able to do the last couple of years, but now he’s in a way better place. He’s having a terrific season.”

López worked beyond four innings for the first time in five starts this season, striking out two and walking one over five scoreless in his first start since Sept. 2 at Target Field. He settled down to throw 75 pitches after needing 23 to get through the first and gave the White Sox a boost, not to mention enhancing his own confidence after being sent to the team’s alternate training facility in Schaumburg, Ill., following that last start.

“They sent me there for a reason, and I went there with the purpose to work and get better,” Lopez said. “I was able to do that down there, and now I feel like I am in a better place.”

“That’s the guy I remembered,” Renteria said. “That’s the guy I know. I think he understands where he’s at. You can only lie to yourself so much. He knows what he has to do. He understands the importance of the boost in the arm he was going to give us today.”

The White Sox scored three in the first off Detroit starter Michael Fulmer and added two in the third, three in the fourth and four in the fifth. Ten of 11 players who batted for the White Sox had at least one hit, as they maintained a one-game lead over the Twins in the division and moved 3 1/2 up on the Indians with their magic number to clinch a playoff spot dropping to seven.

Jonathan Stiever joins the South Side fun, as the No. 6 White Sox prospect per MLB Pipeline makes his Major League debut Sunday. Stiever has never pitched above the Carolina League for Class A Winston-Salem, but he will have plenty of potent offensive support behind him.

“We expect him to hopefully get a nice little boost in the arm, just like we got one out of Lopey today,” Renteria said. “We’ll watch him, and hopefully he’ll be able to kind of duplicate what Lopey did today.”