Abreu heads home; Sox hit road
First baseman Jose Abreu won’t join his teammates when the White Sox close out the season in Minnesota this weekend. Instead, he’ll head home to Miami on Friday and call it a year.
It has been one to forget even though Abreu made his second All-Star team. He underwent emergency testicular torsion surgery in August and was sidelined this month with an infection in his right thigh.
Abreu will finish with a .265/.325/.473 hitting line with 22 home runs and 78 RBI, falling three homers short of becoming the ninth player to hit 25 in his first five seasons. He played his 128th and last game Sept. 16 in Baltimore.
“It is disappointing,’’ Abreu said. “That is not the way I wanted to end the season, but you know what, like I always said, God does things for a reason, and you have to take it.”
Abreu, who will be 32 in the final year of his contract next season, repeated that he wants to play his entire career with the Sox.
“That’s a discussion I’ve been having with my family, and that’s what we all want, just to be part of this organization for my whole career,’’ he said.
General manager Rick Hahn said Wednesday that decisions have to be made on Abreu and Avisail Garcia, who can become free agents a year from now. Garcia has been limited to 89 games because of hamstring and knee problems and will have arthroscopic knee surgery Tuesday.
“We don’t need to make longterm decisions on either just yet,’’ Hahn said.
Bullpen night, plight
Left-handed reliever Jace Fry got his first career start and gave up a leadoff home run to Francisco Lindor, kicking off a bad bullpen night and home finale for the Sox in a 10-2 loss to the Indians.
The Indians built a 10-0 lead through six innings, scoring against Aaron Bummer (one run), Ryan Burr (five) and Jeanmar Gomez (three).
The Sox didn’t get a hit off Indians starter Shane Bieber until Yoan Moncada bounced a high chopper off the plate to the mound for a single in the fifth inning, and they didn’t score until the ninth on RBI singles by Kevan Smith and Adam Engel.
Moncada (2-for-4) struck out twice, hiking his major-leagueleading total to 214, nine shy of the major-league record held by Mark Reynolds (2009 Rockies).
The Sox lost nine of their last 11 home games, finishing 30-51, their most losses at home since going 3153 in 1970 at Comiskey Park.
Nice gesture
Manager Rick Renteria donated 200 tickets to children who were treated at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis for Sunday’s game at the Twins. It’s a thank-you to staff involved in his care while he was a patient there last month.
Renteria missed four games undergoing tests for lightheadedness.
Attendance
A Fan Appreciation Night paid crowd of 25,598 hiked the season total to 1,608,582. Many of them stayed for postgame fireworks and cheered loudly for the Sox’ runs in the ninth.
The Sox drew 1,629,093 last season.