White Sox’ Jose Abreu leads first basemen in AL All-Star fan voting

Even as he was laboring through his first extended slump of the season, White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu held on to a firm lead at his position in American League fan voting for the All-Star Game, with 1,032,748 votes in results released Tuesday.

Abreu is comfortably ahead of the Astros’ Yuli Gurriel (714,361), who moved ahead of the Red Sox’ Mitch Moreland (644,728) into second place in the third week of announced results.

Abreu, 31, is going through his worst month this season but was hitting .272 with 11 home runs, 44 RBI, 27 doubles and 37 runs scored through Monday. An All-Star as a rookie in 2014, he is looking to become the first Sox player to win a fan election since Frank Thomas accomplished the feat in three consecutive seasons (1994-96). Luis Aparicio (1970), Dick Allen (1972-74), Richie Zisk (1977) and Carlton Fisk (1981-82) are the only other Sox who have won fan votes.

A model of consistency in his 4½ seasons in the majors, Abreu is batting .215 with a .237 on-base percentage and a .366 slugging percentage this month.

‘‘Just doing my routine,’’ Abreu said through a translator when asked about working his way out of it. ‘‘Right now, it’s just a matter of swinging at more pitches in the strike zone. That’s something I’m not doing consistently right now or throughout this month, and that’s probably the reason my offense is not as good as it was last month.’’

The voting period ends July 5 at 10:59 p.m. Central time. The All-Star Game is July 17 at Nationals Park in Washington.

Covey on mend

Right-hander Dylan Covey threw a bullpen session with pitching coach Don Cooper and reported no issues from the lower-body discomfort that forced him to leave his start Friday against the Athletics.

Manager Rick Renteria said he doesn’t expect Covey to miss a turn, which means he remains on schedule to open the Sox’ 10-game road trip Friday against the Rangers.

‘‘He feels he’s 100 percent,’’ Renteria said. ‘‘Coop saw his side [session], and he says there’s no problem. He didn’t feel it. So right now, we’re going as normal.’’

It was unclear exactly where Covey, who is 3-2 with a 3.45 ERA after allowing eight earned runs in nine innings in his last two starts, felt discomfort. The Sox said it was a hip flexor, but Covey said last weekend it was his groin.

‘‘That area,’’ Covey said. ‘‘I don’t know exactly what it was. We didn’t get any tests done, but all the manual tests they did said my strength is good. Just probably like a cramp or something that was lingering a little bit.’’

In any event, Covey said he’s ready to pitch.

‘‘Everything felt great,’’ he said. ‘‘Unless something weird happens, I’ll be good to go. That’s the plan.’’

Dunning news coming soon

An update is expected Wednesday on minor-league right-hander Dane Dunning, who was to have an MRI exam on his right elbow. Dunning (5-2, 2.76 ERA at Class AA Birmingham) exited his last start in the fifth inning Saturday.