White Sox left-fielder Tony Phillips is closing in on career figures in runs scored and walks that would put him in select company with only six active players, some of them certain future Hall-of-Fame members.
Phillips, 37, needs to score nine more runs and draw 12 more walks to reach the 1,000 level in
each category. The only active players with 1,000 or more runs and walks are Wade Boggs, Brett Butler, Rickey Henderson, Eddie Murray, Tim Raines and Ozzie Smith.
Hot stuff: Mike Cameron and Jeff Abbott, 23-year-old outfielders in the minor-league system, are both on hitting rolls.
Cameron went 4 for 5 Thursday for Double-A Birmingham, getting two doubles and his seventh home run. In his last four games, he’s hitting .529 with four homers and 10 runs scored.
Abbott, who carried a .357 average into this season for two years of minor-league work, is hitting .410 for Triple-A Nashville.