Top White Sox stories of 2018: Adam Engel's week of home-run robberies

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As the new year approaches, we're counting down the top White Sox stories from 2018.

Somewhat quietly, Adam Engel was a Gold Glove finalist in center field this fall.

But he had one week in August that was anything but quiet, and that week alone might have put him in the running for the annual fielding award.

In the span of seven days, Engel made a trio of jaw-dropping home-run robberies against the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians.

First, on Aug. 6, he stole one away from Yankees hitter Greg Bird.

He followed that up the very next night, with this robbery of a home run off the bat of Kyle Higashioka. This theft came right near the "The Catch" sign in center field and brought to memory Dewayne Wise, who made, under the circumstances, the best catch that Hawk Harrelson had ever seen.

White Sox pitcher Reynaldo Lopez really appreciated that one.

"I just wanted to take off my glove," he said through a team translator that day, "and go out there and kiss him."

And if that wasn't enough, Engel stole the show (literally) in the Sunday afternoon game Aug. 12, this thievery of Indians slugger Yonder Alonso — now one of Engel's White Sox teammates — the best of the bunch.

While Engel's offensive production has been slow to come along, his defensive ability has never been questioned, and spectacular plays like this show how valuable his glove can be to the White Sox moving forward.

"That’s something I take a lot of pride in, show up every day and trying to help the team win in any way that I can," Engel said that Sunday. "Defensively, it’s something I know I can count on. Just make sure to try to work on that every day. Make sure I stay sharp, and offensively hopefully I can get it going."

A season's worth of high-quality defense got him the title of Gold Glove finalist, but this week in August surely brought his skill to the attention of the baseball world.

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