It didn’t take long for Jose Abreu to add to his memorable weekend in the City Series.
The Chicago White Sox first baseman led off the second inning Sunday with a 449-foot home run to left-center off Cubs starter Yu Darvish.
It was Abreu’s fourth consecutive home run dating to Saturday, tying a major-league record achieved 43 times.
Abreu went 1-for-3 with the home run and a walk in the Sox’s 2-1 loss at Wrigley Field.
The Sox (17-12) saw their seven-game winning streak end, but Abreu continued his home run display. He hit six homers in the three-game series.
“That’s just a result of the work I put in day in and day out,” Abreu said through an interpreter. “I’m never satisfied with what I do. I always think I can do better, I can do more. That’s why I work so hard.
“It definitely feels good to have something like that. I would rather have the win. We battled. We did our best and we just came up short. It was a good game. I’m happy for what I did, but it’s a little bittersweet because we didn’t get the win.”
Abreu went 7-for-12 with six homers, six runs, nine RBIs and two walks in the three games. The six homers are the most by a Sox player in a three-game series.
He is is the first player in the majors with six homers in a three-game series since Hee-seop Choi did it for the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 10-12, 2005, against the Minnesota Twins.
“All of his at-bats were pretty good swings,” Sox manager Rick Renteria said of Abreu. “It’s special to watch because when you see a hitter locked in, there is nothing like it. You see when they are sitting on pitches, and even if they mishit them, they are really good swings.”
Abreu is is 17-for-33 (.515) with three doubles, eight homers and 16 RBIs during his current eight-game hitting streak. He hit two homers Friday, three Saturday and the one against Darvish on Sunday.
Darvish pitched seven sharp innings, allowing the one run on six hits with 10 strikeouts.
Sox starter Dylan Cease was also effective. The onetime Cubs prospect allowed two runs on four hits with five strikeouts and three walks in six innings in his first start at Wrigley Field.
“The biggest thing is just the history here, and at the same time, it’s a very talented lineup too,” Cease said. “It’s one of those games where you definitely want to bring your ‘A’ game.”
Cease worked out of a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the fifth, striking out Jason Kipnis and getting Ian Happ to hit into a double play.
“He regrouped and managed the situation,” Renteria said. “In the past that might have gotten away from him. He certainly didn’t allow it to happen. Some nice plays behind him helped him get out of that. He’s maturing. (Sunday) was one of the top outings he’s had for us in the last couple years.”
Cease made one mistake, allowing a two-run homer to Kyle Schwarber in the sixth.
“He drops two really good sliders down underneath that Schwarber wasn’t able to manage (and) tried to get one more. I think he left it in the middle,” Renteria said. “The stuff was really good. He was really crisp. He showed you what he could do.”
Overall, Cease said the outing was “pretty solid.”
“Too many walks still (three), still room to execute better,” he said. “But I feel like I’m steadily improving every start.”
And he liked what he saw from the Sox throughout the series.
“I felt like we were in it in every pitch,” Cease said. “We’re a team that needs to be taken serious and they’re a great team too. It’s one of those series where we had two big teams clash with each other and it was a lot of fun to watch.”