Abreu's 30th homer blasts Sox past Twins 9-5
MINNEAPOLIS — Manager Robin Ventura is no longer surprised when Jose Abreu hits a long home run or does something else spectacular.
Abreu hit his major league-leading 30th homer and drove in three runs, leading the White Sox past the Minnesota Twins 9-5 on Friday night.
"I think we're past the point of unexpected with him," Ventura said. "You just expect him to be in the middle of things when it's happening."
Abreu had two hits and scored twice. The Cuban rookie has 77 RBIs — Detroit's Miguel Cabrera began the day leading the majors with 80.
Fellow slugger and teammate Adam Dunn is even more impressed with Abreu than his manager.
"Baseball's been around a long time and there's been a lot of rookies come up but for him to do what he's done, I don't think anybody expected that," Dunn said. "Am I surprised by it? Not really."
The White Sox said in research by the Elias Sports Bureau that Abreu's 89 games are the third fastest in major league history to reach 30 home runs. He also joined Jose Canseco and Tony Oliva as the only Cuban-born rookies to hit 30 homers.
Alexei Ramirez and Tyler Flowers also homered for the White Sox. Dayan Viciedo tied a career high with four of Chicago's 17 hits.
John Danks (9-6), the subject of recent trade rumors, gave up four runs over seven innings.
Oswaldo Arcia and Josh Willingham homered for Minnesota, which has lost 10 of its last 13 home games.
Abreu drove a hanging curveball from Kevin Correia (5-13) into the bullpen in left-center field to give Chicago a 3-0 lead in the first inning.
"The ball was flying everywhere. Bloops, blasts, the whole package," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.
The White Sox have won six of their last nine.
Danks set down 12 batters in a row before Chris Colabello lined two-run single in the sixth.
Heading into the start, Danks was 0-6 with a 6.18 ERA in his last eight games against Minnesota.
An early three-run blast from Abreu sure helps in forgetting about some of those trade rumors.
"I don't get caught up in any of that, I really don't," Danks said. "I've heard some things about the rumors and stuff out there. I have no control over that. I'm going to be in Chicago hopefully my whole career, but if something happens we'll cross that bridge when we get there."
After Kurt Suzuki had a sacrifice fly in the Twins second, Ramirez opened the third with a home run off the facing of the upper deck in left.
Flowers sent a drive off the upper deck to start the seventh, one of his three hits.
Correia, also mentioned in trade speculation, lasted just four innings for the second consecutive start. Watching those balls fly over the fence and the bloopers find open space wasn't any fun for him.
"That's two bad starts in a row. I need to get on another good run here," Correia said.
NOTES: Twins star Joe Mauer began hitting soft toss in the batting cage as he works his way back from an oblique strain. ... Viciedo has three four-hit games in his career. ... The Twins recalled LHP Logan Darnell to make his first big league start on Saturday in place of the injured Kyle Gibson (back). Gibson hopes to start Tuesday's game in Kansas City. Darnell will face All-Star Chris Sale (9-1, 2.03). ... To make room for Darnell, Minnesota optioned SS Jorge Polanco to Double-A New Britain.