Reynaldo

López

Martín Pérez, Sunday’s scheduled starter, will face the Nationals in his place. As a result, the Nats have altered their lineup to sit Daylen Lile and Jorbit Vivas in favor of Andres Chapparo and Brady House.

López allowed five hits and one walk in a no-decision. He was in line for the win before Atlanta’s bullpen squandered the lead and this one headed to extras. The right-hander has a serviceable 3.64 ERA this season and lines up to face the hot-hitting Nationals next time out.

López’s velocity was pretty good — he averaged 95.3 mph with his fastball and an especially high 85.9 mph with his slider — but he allowed two homers, seven other hits and three walks. This is two poor outings in a row, so his rotation status might again be in jeopardy, especially with the deadline coming up. The loss leaves him 4-3 with a 3.95 ERA. That seems fine, of course, but he had a 3.74 ERA the first time he was pulled from the rotation in April. As is, he’s slated to face the Orioles on Sunday.

López gave up five hits, walked one and struck out three. He fell to 4-2 with the loss. López has managed to complete five innings in each of his last three starts. While that represents progress for him, he still isn’t working deep enough into games to have significant fantasy upside.

López allowed three hits, walked two and struck out five. A Carson Benge homer accounted for the damage. He’s shown enough since returning to the rotation to reemerge as an option in deeper mixed leagues. His 21 percent strikeout rate and 10 percent walk rate are still quite a bit weaker than his marks from his successful 2024, when he came in at 27 and eight percent, respectively. López will face the Cardinals next.

López was in complete control during this outing. After letting up two hits and one run through the first four batters of the game, he retired 13 of the final 14 batters he faced. His fastball was up a tick, sitting just above 95 mph and still stretching to 97 mph in his fifth and final inning of work. His slider had great bite too, forcing six swings-and-misses. He also worked up to 69 pitches, his most in a single outing since April 14th and overall, he looked much sharper than in his return to the rotation last Friday. Next up is a two-start week against the Mets and Cardinals.

López has plenty of starting experience and will jump into Atlanta’s rotation mix with Bryce Elder remaining on schedule to take the ball on Saturday with Chris Sale being pushed back to Sunday’s series finale. López is unlikely to work deep enough into the contest to deliver significant fantasy appeal. He holds a solid 3.50 ERA and 39/21 K/BB ratio across 43 2/3 innings this season.

López threw scoreless sixth and seventh innings after play resumed Wednesday. Unfortunately, pitching out of the pen hasn’t really done wonders for López’s velocity, as he averaged 93.3 mph with his fastball today. He has a 3.79 ERA in 19 innings while mostly pitching in low leverage situations since losing his rotation spot in late April.

Brought in with a 7-0 lead, López lost the shutout but didn’t create much drama in the Braves’ victory. Following a second straight shaky outing, it really doesn’t look like he’ll rejoin Atlanta’s rotation any time soon. He’s just no match for Martín Pérez at the moment.

This isn’t the kind of usage that suggests López will be back in the rotation any time soon. López, though, was back up to 94.2 mph with his eight fastballs today. He averaged just 92.5 mph last time out. He was between 93.2 mph and 94.6 mph in his four starts before being sent to the pen to work on mechanical issues.