Jorge Lopez's second time facing the White Sox look an awful lot like his first.
Reynaldo López's night looked like one he hadn't enjoyed yet in 2019.
The White Sox' Lopez overcame early wobbles to throw six strong innings, and an outburst of power in the middle innings was enough support for his first win of the season.
Just like back on March 31, Lopez got a lot of ugly swings over the first three innings. He racked up seven strikeouts through three, with Yoan Moncada's opposite-field blast the only damage.
But his offspeed stuff drifted higher as he went through the order a second and third time ...
... and the White Sox started pouncing.
In the fifth, Yolmer Sánchez drew a one-out walk on five pitches. Up came Leury García, who spun his entire frame into a hanging changeup and sent it 428 feet into the right-field seats for a 3-1 lead.
Two pitches later, Lopez threw Moncada a spinner on the outside corner, and Moncada ripped it into the Kansas City bullpen to make it back-to-back.
The Royals' Lopez ended up striking out 10 Sox on the evening over six innings, but it once again ended without a quality start on a night KC needed one.
Reynaldo López also went six, but he limited the damage to a Lucas Duda solo shot on a hanging two-strike slider in the second. That was an ugly mistake, and coming after some shaky control in the first inning, López looked like he might have another difficult night in store.
Instead, he came back and retired the next seven. When he had to deal with traffic again, he found the double play ball. The Sox went around the horn on Chris Owings to end the fourth inning, and then turned a 6-5-3 double play in the shift to double up Ryan O'Hearn.
In terms of pitch mix, López had just about an ideal night. He did most of the setup work with a 95 mph fastball, then had both the slider and changeup at his disposal. He threw 20 of each and got nine swinging strikes between them. He only had half the strikeouts of the other Lopez, but he gave up a third of the homers.
Speaking of which, Yonder Alonso visited the Goose Island in the eighth inning to cap a four-hit game He raised his average from .152 to .220 in one night. The blast shoved the game out of a save situation for Alex Colomé, but Colomé was already warm and pitched around a one-out walk to close it out.
Bullet points:
*Moncada's multi-homer night pushed his OPS back up over 1.000 (1.023).
*Tim Anderson didn't back up my morning post, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and a double play. He did steal a base, at least.
*Jose Abreu also looked off, going 0-for-4 with a silver sombrero.
*García let a couple of flies drop in front of him, including a Jorge Soler "single" on which he broke the wrong way. A flare to right field in the ninth also fell in front of him, but he racked up the assist at second base.
*Engel entered in center and made a catch at the wall in left center look easy.
*Daniel Palka is now 0-for-32 after going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
Record: 7-9 | Box score | Highlights
