CLEVELAND -- The White Sox may have suffered a bigger loss than just the ballgame on Friday night.
José Abreu exited Friday's contest at Progressive Field in the seventh inning with a bruised left leg after he was struck by a pitch near his knee. The first baseman is listed as day-to-day but wasn’t around to see the White Sox fall for the sixth time in seven games on their current road trip. They dropped a 7-3 decision to the Cleveland Indians 7-3 in front of 30,043. Miguel Gonzalez allowed four earned runs in 4 2/3 innings for the White Sox, who are a season-worst nine games below .500.
“(Abreu) got hit pretty good but he’s going to be OK,” manager Rick Renteria said. “We’ll know how he is in the morning, but he’s fairly confident he’ll be OK. It got mostly muscle, just below the left knee. He’s got pretty big legs. The swelling is almost non-existent. This will truthfully be a day-to-day type.
“He’s pretty pain tolerant. That was pretty impactful. I think it just caught him, he couldn’t get away from it.”
Abreu received treatment after he left the game but didn’t require an X-ray, Renteria said.
The team announced the 2014 All-Star would be re-evaluated on Saturday. But Abreu looked to be in a lot of pain after Indians reliever Andrew Miller plunked him. Abreu fell to her ground for at least a minute and then hobbled to his feet. He appeared not to be able to put any weight on his left leg and was helped off the field by trainer Herm Schneider and Renteria.
Abreu had been involved in a pair of earlier White Sox rallies that allowed them to take the lead twice. Melky Cabrera tied the score at 1 in the third inning with an RBI single and Abreu walked and scored on Todd Frazier's two-out single.
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Abreu also had a sac fly in the fifth inning to give the White Sox a 3-2 lead.
Gonzalez couldn't hold either lead. He walked in a run in the fourth to force in a run before stranding the bases loaded. Gonzalez's next walk set up a two-out rally in the fifth inning that allowed the Indians to pull ahead for good. Carlos Santana walked with two outs before Edwin Encarnacion ripped a two-run shot to put the Indians ahead 4-3. Gonzalez yielded six hits and walked four batters in 4 2/3 innings.
“Just need to stay focused, keep working, and minimize those walks,” Gonzalez said. “There was what? Four two-out walks? That can't happen. That's not me. I got to change that. That's about it.”
Cleveland rallied for three eighth-inning runs on four hits against reliever Jake Petricka.