Robert doubles down on White Sox history

The top of the White Sox order may have opened the night by making history, but from the bottom of the order, Luis Robert ended the night with an exclamation point.

MLB.com’s third-ranked overall prospect smoked his second dinger of the game in the eighth inning to cap a 7-2 triumph by the White Sox over the Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field on Monday.

"I've been working to have more results and I think that’s my goal every day," Robert told reporters after the game through interpreter Billy Russo. "I think in that at-bat that the pitcher just missed his spot, I don’t think that he was trying to locate that pitch where it landed."

It seems Luis Robert would agree. The top #WhiteSox prospect has his first multi-homer game in the big leagues! pic.twitter.com/nTaIswFmTP

— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) August 18, 2020

Robert created some breathing room for the South Siders when he turned on a hanging slider from right-hander Rony Garcia to lead off the sixth and clubbed it 396 feet to left-center field. The 2-2 off-speed offering had an estimated exit velocity of 106 mph.

Two frames later, the top White Sox prospect followed a double by Edwin Encarnacion with another mammoth blast. After climbing ahead 3-0 in the count against righty Kyle Funkhouser , Robert looked at a called strike up in the zone before unloading on another hanging slider -- the ball traveled 433 feet with an exit velo of 116 mph.

The second roundtripper capped the scoring for Chicago and marked the 23-year-old’s first multi-homer effort in the big leagues. Through 23 games this season, Robert has hit safely 17 times with five multi-hit performances and is batting .286/.341/.536 with five dingers, six doubles, 13 RBIs and 13 runs scored.

"I’ve been working harder with the hitting coach (Frank Menechino) and I think that’s the reason why at this point I feel very comfortable, as I was in the first week," Robert said. "And I think it’s just because of the work I’ve been putting in with the hitting coach."

The White Sox became the first team in Major League history to hit back-to-back homers to lead off a game twice against the same pitcher when Tim Anderson and Yoán Moncada went yard to get things started against southpaw Matthew Boyd (0-3) in the opening frame.

"They had some really good at-bats," Chicago skipper Rick Renteria said. "Great at-bats at the top of the lineup, and just kind of kept going. Obviously, quite a few guys contributed today and it was positive, a really good day."

Chicago’s 19th-ranked prospect Danny Mendick clubbed his first tater of the season with a solo shot to left off Garcia in the sixth, and right-hander Codi Heuer earned his first Major League victory after working around a walk in a hitless sixth.

Detroit’s sixth-ranked prospect Isaac Paredes made his debut in The Show and notched his first big league hit on a two-RBI single to left in the fourth that put the Tigers on the board. No. 7 Willi Castro did not record a knock in four trips to the plate, and 18th-ranked Bryan Garcia whiffed one and did not yield a hit in a scoreless frame of relief. The righty has not allowed an earned run in five straight appearances.