White Sox starting pitcher records career-high in strikeouts to help the team win series against a division rival and remain undefeated on the current homestand.
The Chicago White Sox starting rotation has struggled over the past week. On Sunday afternoon, the rotation might have gotten its best performance of the season thus far thanks to Reynaldo Lopez. The 25-year-old would record a career-high 14 strikeouts to help the team to a 4-1 win over the Detroit Tigers.
With the win, the White Sox swept the Tigers in a shortened two-game series after Saturday’s game was postponed. After a poor week of pitching, Lopez’s outing gave the Sox rotation a much-needed boost as no starter lasted more than five innings pitched this past week. He would finish his outing on Sunday with six innings pitched, no earned runs allowed and 14 strikeouts.
Lopez was in control early against the Tigers as he recorded five strikeouts through just two innings to start the game. He wouldn’t let up against Detroit either as he showcased just how dominant he could be as a starting pitcher for the Sox.
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This is the type of performance Sox fans needed to see from Lopez. He started the season slowly with a 7.36 ERA before Sunday’s start. With the win, Lopez improved his record to 2-3 with a 6.03 ERA and 39 strikeouts through six starts.
His performance on Sunday was also historic as he became just the third MLB pitcher to record 14 or more strikeouts and allow no earned runs in six innings pitched or less.
The Sox offense gave Lopez run support early as they got off to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Welington Castillo would hit a two-run double to give the Sox the early lead off of Tigers starting pitcher Matthew Boyd. While the offense didn’t score again until the seventh inning, Jose Abreu was able to have a great game offensively.
After struggling to start this season, Abreu has now hit safely in seven consecutive games. On Sunday, Abreu went 2-for-3 with one walk to raise his batting average to .273. The Sox would collect a total of nine hits against the Tigers in their series finale.
Absolutely electric. pic.twitter.com/uszHvYuzyb
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) April 28, 2019
Lopez’s 14 strikeouts wouldn’t be the only history made on Sunday from the Sox. With Lopez career-high in strikeouts, the Sox would combine for a team-record 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning game against the Tigers. This would tie the MLB record. Jace Fry, Kelvin Herrera, and Alex Colome would combine for six strikeouts to end the game with each pitcher recording two strikeouts respectively.
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The win improves the Sox record to 11-14. They’re close to third place in the American League Central division and can reach .500 relatively soon. If you’re a Sox fan looking for more good news, you can’t ask for anything better right now than the direction this franchise appears to be going in.