Lopez's gem leads White Sox past Indians

[September 06, 2019]  Reynaldo Lopez allowed one hit and struck out 11 en route to his first career complete game as the visiting Chicago White Sox breezed to a 7-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Thursday afternoon.

Welington Castillo belted a two-run homer to highlight his three-hit, three-RBI performance and Adam Engel and Yolmer Sanchez each drove in a pair for the White Sox, who salvaged a split of the four-game series.

Lopez (9-12) retired the last 16 batters he faced to avenge a disastrous outing on Saturday. The 25-year-old surrendered six runs on as many hits in a career-worst two-thirds of an inning in an 11-5 loss at Atlanta.

Kevin Plawecki had an RBI double with two outs in the second inning for the Indians, who have lost five of their last seven games overall and nine of the 16 meetings with Chicago this season.

Cleveland dropped 1 1/2 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays and one game behind the Oakland Athletics in the American League's wild-card race. Oakland defeated the Los Angeles Angels 10-6 on Thursday, and Tampa Bay defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 6-4.

Castillo made the Indians pay for shortstop Francisco Lindor losing Yoan Moncada's popup in the sun by depositing a fastball from rookie Zach Plesac (7-6) over the wall in left field to stake the White Sox to a 2-0 lead in the second inning. The homer was Castillo's ninth of the season and second in his last four games.

Cleveland halved the deficit in the bottom of the second as Jake Bauers worked a two-out walk from Lopez before coming home on Plawecki's double to right field.

White Sox starting pitcher Reynaldo Lopez (40) celebrates after throwing a complete game one-hitter against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY

Sanchez gave the White Sox some breathing room with an RBI single to center field in the fourth inning and a bases-loaded walk off reliever Hunter Wood in the sixth.

Engel followed with a lined single to left that outfielder Bauers was unable to snare, allowing Zack Collins and Danny Mendick to score to give Chicago a 6-1 lead.

Plesac fell to 1-3 in his last four starts after yielding six runs on eight hits in five innings. The loss to the White Sox was the 24-year-old's second this season, as he allowed one run on four hits in seven innings of a 2-0 setback on June 2.

--Field Level Media

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