Tonight's lineup looked like one of those low points for the rebuild.
Little did we know that Ryan LaMarre would turn in the performance of his career.
LaMarre, who came into tonight with seven extra-base hits to his name over 87 games, came up with three of them in the series finale against the Yankees. He delivered a two-run double in the second and an RBI double in the fourth against CC Sabathia, then came up with a solo shot against Chad Green in the sixth. He accounted for all four White Sox runs from the eighth spot in the lineup.
LaMarre's outburst was enough to support Reynaldo Lopez, who maybe should only face the Yankees.
Prior to tonight, Lopez's last strong start was seven innings of one-run ball against the Bombers at Guaranteed Rate Field. He did the same thing tonight, even with a less-than-fiery opening that brought Rick Renteria and Herm Schneider to the mound in the second inning.
Lopez's velocity lingered in the low-90s to start the game, and it required a mound visit in the second inning. Renteria, who'd been lied to by Lopez before, looked like he really wanted an honest answer, and based on the way Lopez's fastball rebounded to its usual levels in the middle innings, it seems like Lopez was telling the truth this time.
Renteria trusted Lopez enough to let him go through seven on 108 pitches, even with opportunities to jump off the train. He allowed the leadoff hitter to reach in four of his last five innings. However, Lopez did get 13 swinging strikes, and he had plenty of faith in his secondary offerings -- 26 changeups, 34 breaking balls -- so maybe that made the difference.
It also helped that the Sox again played tremendous defense. Avisail Garcia robbed Neil Walker of another homer in right, Kevan Smith and Lopez teamed up to cut down a run on a wild pitch for the third out, Adam Engel finished wowing the Yankees for a year with a diving catch in shallow center to prevent one scoring opportunity, and Yolmer Sanchez made a couple more snags on hot smashes. Giancarlo Stanton told Sanchez to leave town after his crushed one-hopper turned into a 6-3 putout.
Lopez's final line had decent peripherals -- seven innings, five hits, two walks, six strikeouts -- but it doesn't reflect a fair number of hard-hit balls. Based on the way he'd been pitching as of late, everybody should get happy to take success however it comes.
The Yankees had a better showing in the field as well, especially in center, where Aaron Hicks stole doubles from both Garcia and Yoan Moncada. Both teams had the same number of errors (zero), hits (six) and hits with scoring position (one). Fortunately for the Sox, LaMarre's power display stretched how scoring position could be defined.
Record: 53-80 | Box score
