The start of Reynaldo Lopez‘s 2019 season hasn’t exactly been smooth, but none of that mattered on Sunday.
Entering his start against the Detroit Tigers, the 25-year-old right-hander struggled to a 7.46 ERA and 1.89 WHIP to go along with a 20.7% strikeout rate, 11.6% walk rate, and 2.49 home runs allowed per nine innings in 25.1 frames. His last two starts were a huge improvement over his first three, but Lopez’s -0.2 fWAR was tied with Jhoulys Chacin and Miles Mikolas for the second-worst mark in baseball among qualified starters.
Although what he did in six innings on Sunday won’t completely erase the early struggles, it certainly won’t hurt. Lopez was completely dominant, allowing just one unearned run on two hits, three walks, and a career-high 14 strikeouts. And if we could only choose one pitch to illustrate just how dominant he was in what could become a career-defining appearance, it’d be this one:
Reynaldo López, Overpowering 97mph Fastball (on pitch 105/14th K)…and pitching with emotion. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/eCpz1d97rU
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 28, 2019
Thankfully, this performance produced quite a few tweets with eye-popping statistics included.
The White Sox have experienced a number of games with 14-plus strikeouts in recent years. It’s all because of Chris Sale, though, who did it seven times during his time in Chicago. If you’re wondering who the last White Sox pitcher was to accomplish this feat before Sale, chances are you wouldn’t get the name right.
Reynaldo Lopez’s 14 strikeouts in today’s start are the most for a White Sox pitcher not named Chris Sale since Jason Bere in 1995.
— Jeremy Frank (@MLBRandomStats) April 28, 2019
Entering this start, opposing hitters had produced 1.072 OPS and 194 wRC+ with a 19.5% strikeout rate against Lopez’s four-seam fastball. Those season-long numbers will take a dip after Sunday.
Reynaldo Lopez joins Jacob deGrom with an MLB season-high 14 K's.
All but one of Lopez's K's came on four-seam fastballs, making him just the THIRD pitcher in the pitch tracking era (since 2008) to record 13 K's on 4-seamers in one game. #WhiteSox https://t.co/ypaiARTwq8
— Matt Kelly (@mattkellyMLB) April 28, 2019
But this doesn’t mean Lopez’s four-seamer was the only pitch working. He did a little bit of everything right.
Reynaldo Lopez with maybe the best start of his career & one of the best starts of the year today:
– 14 K's (Career high)
– 24 swings and misses (4th most in a start this year)
– 42% CSW rate (6th highest this year for one start)Here are the Ks from his utterly dominant start. pic.twitter.com/9aevWXsxiJ
— Alex Fast (@AlexFast8) April 28, 2019
Racking up 14 strikeouts in an outing is impressive, and it’s even more impressive when it comes in as few as six innings. After all, that meant Detroit hitters put just four balls in play while Lopez toed the slab.
This probably isn’t surprising, but the right-hander is now taking up residence in a pretty exclusive club.
Starters in the last 101 years with 6 or fewer IP and 14+ strikeouts in a single outing:
Reynaldo Lopez – today
Mike Fiers – 2014
Max Scherzer – 2010
Kelvim Escobar – 2007
AJ Burnett – 2005
Randy Johnson – 2001
Kerry Wood – 2001
Nolan Ryan – 1989
Sam McDowell – 1966That’s it.
— Connor Looker (@HotStoveStats) April 28, 2019
But when we also include the fact that he didn’t allow any earned runs, the club becomes that much more exclusive.
Reynaldo López is just the 3rd pitcher ever with 14+ K in 6 IP or less while allowing 0 ER. pic.twitter.com/autj5GVPuB
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) April 28, 2019
This was a good day at the office for Lopez, and one he’ll never forget. For the White Sox, they’re likely hoping this is the kind of performance that propels the young right-hander to another level in his game.
About Matt Musico
Matt Musico currently manages Chin Music Baseball and contributes to The Sports Daily. His past work has been featured at numberFire, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. He’s also written a book and created an online class about how to get started as a sports blogger. You can sign up for his email newsletter here.
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