Reynaldo López's season can be described as up-and-down. It can be best described as "mostly down," but he ended with an up by picking on the Detroit Tigers on the front end of a doubleheader.
After spending his previous start getting an earful from Rick Renteria, he heard nothing but cheers, at least after the first of eight-plus innings. He shook off a solo shot by Miguel Cabrera for the only run he allowed all afternoon, while the White Sox offense spread out its support throughout the affair.
López attacked, attacked, attacked. He issued just one walk on top of the five hits while striking out nine. He threw 75 of 105 pitches for strikes, and while his swinging strike total doesn't reflect dominance, the lack of exit velocity reflects effectiveness. Good fastball command, along with one of his better sliders of the year, limited the Tigers to just three hard-hit balls all game.
The White Sox offense had a steadier supply of big hits. It took them a couple innings to figure out Matthew Boyd, but they finally stung him for two runs in the third, the first of three crooked numbers on the afternoon.
The inning opened with Harold Castro booting Yolmer Sánchez's grounder to second, and he came around to score after singles by Adam Engel and Ryan Cordell. Both moved up a base on Leury García's groundout, and while Danny Mendick's popout couldn't score them, #PASSEDBALLOFFENSE on a Jose Abreu walk put the Sox up 2-1.
An inning later, Sánchez reached with a legit double that scored Yoan Moncada all the way from first. Sánchez had to hold up on Engel's single and only took third, and Cordell risked stranding him by popping up a questionable squeeze attempt. García atoned for Cordell's sins by shooting a single through the right side.
The other runs scored with less stress. Mendick pulled and inside Edwin Jackson fastball over the wall in left for a two-run homer, and Eloy Jiménez followed him an inning later with a blast off the left-field foul pole for his 31st of the year.
Bullet points:
*Engel and Moncada both had less-than-stellar slides into home plate on their runs. Engel could be excused because he had to dive around Abreu's bat, which he flipped in front of the plate before realizing the pitch got away. Moncada just jarted his shoulder into the first on his dive, and came up sore in his standard fashion.
*Mendick swung at ball four three different times, preventing him from drawing his first career walk. The first time was OK because he ended up notching his second homer, but he grounded into a double play after extending his final plate appearance.
*The White Sox drew four walks against seven strikeouts versus Boyd, while López and Kelvin Herrera struck out 11 Tigers against one walk. Herrera retired all three batters he faced, two by strikeout, as the only reliever needed in the front half of the doubleheader.
Record: 71-88 | Box score | Highlights
