Some quality time with Lopez
For the second consecutive game, a young Sox pitcher didn’t have his best command. And for the second consecutive game, that didn’t stop him from having a strong start.
One day after Lucas Giolito was credited with a complete game, Reynaldo Lopez threw six strong innings, allowing one run and four hits. He gave up Billy McKinney’s homer in the third inning and struck out only one but had his sixth quality start in his last seven tries.
And he did it without his best stuff.
“I fought through it,” Lopez said through a translator. “You recognize you don’t have your best stuff, you just try to pitch through contact, just to try to get quick outs.”
Perhaps the turning point was the fourth inning. With two outs and the bases loaded, he struck out McKinney after falling behind 3-0. Lopez walked two batters that inning but didn’t allow a run.
“It’s taxing, but he gets through it,’’ manager Rick Renteria said. ‘‘He got through it. That is a huge sign when you don’t have your best stuff or your best command and you’re still able to navigate through that.”
That followed Giolito’s outing Saturday, when he pitched five innings and gave up a run but also wasn’t at his sharpest.
“It’s good for them,” catcher Welington Castillo said. “It’s going to be really good for them in the long run.”
Special Leury
The Sox ask a lot of Leury Garcia. Sunday was his 37th game leading off, and he has made appearances in center field, left field, right field, at shortstop and second base.
That doesn’t mean Garcia needs to prepare differently than other players. In fact, Renteria said Garcia shows he’s “kind of special” by not needing to do anything out of the ordinary.
“He’s kind of an easygoing guy who has a whole lot of confidence in everything he does in between the lines,” Renteria said. “He works extremely hard pregame on fly balls and ground balls and things of that nature. But he’s a natural. That’s as easy as I can put it. He’s a natural and can transition from one position to another as easily as I’ve ever seen anybody do.”
Vlad has a future
The Sox won’t see the Blue Jays again this season, but Vladimir Guerrero Jr. left a mark.
Guerrero lived up to the hype, homering Friday and again Sunday. His two-run homer in the eighth off Kelvin Herrera broke a 1-1 tie. It came on a 93.6 mph pitch that was inside but went 395 feet and left his bat at 101.5 mph.
When that happens, there’s only so much a pitcher and catcher can do.
“He got to it. We weren’t expecting that from him,” Castillo said. “I’m OK when my guy makes the pitch and the hitter gets him.”
This and that
The Sox have not announced a starter for the series opener Monday in Houston. On Sunday, they signed veteran Odrisamer Despaigne and assigned him to Class AAA Charlotte, where he threw two innings.
♦ In the sixth, Yoan Moncada was hit on the left knee by a Trent Thornton pitch. After walking gingerly to first, Moncada stayed in the game.
♦ Yonder Alonso went 0-for-4, dropping his average to .181.