CHICAGO -- Jose Abreu's walk off grand slam gave the White Sox a 9-6 win Friday at U.S. Cellular Field. It was Abreu's ninth home run in the month of April, the most by a rookie in Major League history.
Trailing 6-4 entering the ninth, the White Sox took advantage of Alejandro De Aza's leadoff double and three walks by Rays closer Grant Balfour to score one run and keep the bases loaded for Abreu, who then homered to right.
Abreu's heroics bailed out Matt Lindstrom, who gave up a two-run homer to Evan Longoria in the top of the ninth that gave the Rays a briefly-held 6-4 lead. Lindstrom walked Matt Joyce to start the inning, the 10th of 11 walks issued by White Sox pitching on the night.
 
Abreu's slam in 9th lifts White Sox over Rays 9-6
 
White Sox starter Erik Johnson couldn't make it out of the second inning and struggled mightily with his command. The Rays sent 10 men to the plate and scored four runs in the second, all with two outs.
Yunel Escobar singled home Longoria, who lead off the inning with a single to right-center. Ryan Hanigan followed with a run-scoring single to left and Ben Zobrist made it 3-1 Rays by smoking a run-scoring double down the line in right. Johnson then issued back-to-back walks, the latter to Joyce to force in a run, and was yanked for Jake Petricka, who got Longoria to ground out on the first pitch.
The White Sox got on the board quickly in the first. After missing the past five games with a left knee strain, Adam Eaton announced his return to the lineup with a leadoff single. He stole second with Marcus Semien batting and scored on Abreu's single to center that made it 1-0 White Sox.
Abreu cut the Rays lead to 4-2 with his eighth home run, a solo shot to straightway center in the third inning. The eight home runs tied him with Albert Pujols, Carlos Delgado and Kent Hrbek for the most home runs by a rookie before the end of April. Abreu's slam in the ninth gave him 27 RBIs, tying him with Pujols in 2001 for most before the end of April.
The White Sox tied it at 4 with a pair of runs in the fourth. Dayan Viciedo, Alexei Ramirez and De Aza opened the inning with three straight singles to load the bases with no outs. Tyler Flowers continued his hot hitting with a two-run single up the middle, but the Sox ran themselves out of more runs two batters later on a wacky double play.
Eaton hit a chopper back to the mound and De Aza got caught in a rundown between third and home. He was eventually tagged out by Hanigan and moments later Flowers was tagged out trying to make third.
The Rays threatened to retake the lead in the fifth. James Loney lead off with a single and moved to third two batters later on David DeJesus' one-out single. Zach Putnam entered and promptly walked Yunel Escobar to load the bases before getting Hanigan to roll into an inning-ending 5-2-3 double play.
Joyce walked five times, a Rays record.
Joe Popely / MLB.com
 

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