Lopez tosses 1-hitter to beat slumping Indians
Jason Kipnis thinks now is the time for the Cleveland Indians to start looking like a playoff team.
What may be their last chance starts Friday night with a series at the AL Central-leading Minnesota Twins.
Chicago right-hander Reynaldo Lopez pitched a one-hitter against the Indians on Thursday for his first big league complete game, a 7-1 win that gave the White Sox a split of the four-game series.
Cleveland lost for the fifth time in seven games. The Indians began the day 51/2 games behind the AL Central-leading Twins and tied with Oakland for the second AL wild card, a half-game behind Tampa Bay.
“You’d love to have momentum,” Kipnis said. “You’d love to be gaining ground every single time out. That doesn’t lessen the importance of the series coming up and lessen the intensity we’ll bring. We’ll have to pick ourselves up from this game and forget it real fast.”
Seeking their fourth straight division title, the Indians won three of four at Minnesota from Aug. 8-11 and took a half-game lead following a victory over Boston the following day. Cleveland is 9-13 since and headed to Minnesota without third baseman Jose Ramirez for the remainder of the regular season because of a broken hand.
Lopez (9-12) pitched his first complete game in 75 career big league starts.
The 25-year-old allowed an RBI double in the second to Kevin Plawecki that scored Jake Bauers, who had walked.
Lopez struck out 11, walked three, retired his final 16 batters and threw 109 pitches. He pounded his right fist into his glove when he struck out Franmil Reyes to end the game.
Lopez was appreciative that White Sox manager Rick Renteria gave him the opportunity to get 27 outs.
“I was very excited when Ricky let me go out for the ninth,” he said. “When you have a game like that, you want to finish it.”
Rangers 3, Orioles 1:
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Rookie Kolby Allard won his third straight start, Nick Solak hit a go-ahead, tworun homer off John Means in the seventh inning and Texas beat host Baltimore.
Tigers 6, Royals 4:
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Jordy Mercer put the Tigers ahead with their third home run of the fourth inning, and Detroit overcame a three-run deficit in a victory for the first time this year by beating host Kansas City.
Athletics 10, Angels 6:
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Robbie Grossman hit a two-run triple over the head of center fielder Mike Trout as part of a seven-run eighth inning when the Athletics benefited from four consecutive walks, and host Oakland rallied to beat Los Angeles to complete a three-game sweep.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Reds 4, Phillies 3 (11):
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Phillip Ervin homered leading off the 11th inning, and host Cincinnati beat Philadelphia to drop the Phillies 3 1⁄2 games behind the Chicago Cubs for the NL’s second wild card.
Cardinals 10, Giants 0:
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Dakota Hudson pitched six innings of one-hit ball and hit a two-run single for his first big league RBI, helping host St. Louiss rout San Francisco to open a threegame lead over the secondplace Cubs in the NL Central.