Reynaldo Lopez finished the 2018 season in such a strong fashion, it's hard to remember days like this.
Of course, they existed, outings like the two we've seen from the 25-year-old to begin the 2019 campaign. But they were rare enough that what we've seen so far has been a tad jarring.
After giving up four runs in four innings in his first start of the season last weekend in Kansas City, Lopez gave up six runs in five innings in the White Sox home opener Friday on the South Side. Lopez was spotted a 6-1 lead thanks to crooked numbers from the offense in each of the first two innings. But he surrendered three home runs to a slugging Seattle Mariners lineup and departed without an out recorded in the top of the sixth and a 6-all tie on the scoreboard.
It was pretty ugly — especially once the fourth Mariners home run of the day, off reliever Jace Fry, put the White Sox behind — and would've been the lasting image from this day at Guaranteed Rate Field if not for a White Sox comeback, fueled by some shaky Mariners relief pitching and a clutch hit from the red-hot Yoan Moncada. Instead, Lopez's struggles will be mostly isolated to him personally rather than the reason for a sour walk back to the Red Line for so many White Sox fans.
"Overall, I don't think it was a good outing for me," Lopez said through a team translator after the White Sox 10-8 win. "I feel like I have the same rhythm that I had last season, at the end of last season. This season, the beginning of this year is two bad starts. I think I have plenty of season in front of me and I'm going to improve."
It's the realistic approach, obviously. If Lopez makes a full complement of starts, these two games in March and early April will account for well less than 10 percent of them. These games are hardly set to define his 2019 at the present.
But a guy who came into the season as perhaps the team's most reliable starting pitcher hasn't been that through two performances, and his performance Friday, specifically, looked like the worst of the 100-loss campaign in 2018. A five-run lead vanished thanks to White Sox pitching serving up long balls. Not a recipe for progress in Year 3 of the rebuild.
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The lead had dwindled to 6-4 when Lopez returned from the third-base dugout for the sixth inning, only to walk the first batter he faced. Manager Rick Renteria viewed it as one his learning moments, running out to chat with Lopez before he faced Mitch Haniger, the Mariners' best hitter.
"I just said, 'Hey man, it's time to go to work,'" Renteria explained after the game. "He's been grinding the whole game. I know he had already given up four runs, and I know we had a guy out there, but it was one of those things where I wanted him to grind. I wanted him to get through it."
Renteria left Lopez in the game. Two pitches later, Haniger took Lopez deep to tie the score. Renteria's moved on a bit from learning moments to a need to perform in 2019. That was not what anyone (besides Haniger, of course) wanted to see in that moment.
Cause for concern? Not yet. Especially given the small sample size. But as preseason questions continue to linger around Lopez's fellow young starting pitchers, Carlos Rodon and Lucas Giolito, as they write their own stories in 2019, the same will be the case for Lopez. Despite his strong finish, he was not immune to the inconsistencies that plagued those two guys in 2018. The rotation of the future is anything but set, and if Lopez is going to play the kind of starring role he looked capable of at times last season, he'll need to prove it this season.
"I don't think I have to change anything because of these two starts," Lopez said. "I've been working hard since spring training, and I'm going to keep doing it."
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