Reynaldo Lopez posted a fine pitching line with one run allowed in six innings. With a little help, it could’ve been even finer.
In the White Sox’ 5-1 loss Wednesday to the Indians, who got a dominant performance from right-hander Carlos Carrasco, the Sox’ rookie right-hander was forced to trudge through a 33-pitch fourth inning in which he held the Indians to one run on Tyler Naquin’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly.
But Nicky Delmonico’s failure to glove Carlos Santana’s short fly in left — Santana jogged toward first, assuming it would be caught — and second baseman Alen Hanson’s failure to glove Yandy Diaz’s ground ball to his left made Lopez work overtime. The Indians were awarded hits on both plays.
Shortstop Tyler Saladino also let a ball deflect off his glove and into short right for a double in the first. And first baseman Matt Davidson was charged with two errors.
“We should have caught the ball on more plays,’’ manager Rick Renteria said. “It would have allowed him to get a little deeper, but he had to make more pitches because of those miscues. We talked to our guys about that. The physical errors don’t bother you as much as what precipitated them. Is it lack of focus? What is it? We had to deal with those truths also.’’
As a result of all that, Lopez was at 80 pitches through four innings. Carrasco (14-6) pitched a three-hitter, retiring the first 12 Sox in order and facing the minimum through 8‰ innings before Adam Engel homered with two outs in the ninth as the Indians (83-56) won their 14th in a row, tying a franchise record. They will go for a four-game series sweep against the Sox (54-84) on Thursday night.
It was the third quality start of four for Lopez (4.84 ERA), the only dud coming against the Rangers, in which he pitched with a sore back. He gave up six hits, two walks and struck out two.
“I felt strong,’’ Lopez said.
As for the defense, “I just say they are going to have good days and bad days, and they are going to make some mistakes once in a while.’’
Delmonico returns, exits
Delmonico was reinstated from the 10-day disabled list, but he left the game in the ninth for precautionary reasons after “tweaking” his left shoulder on the misplay in left, Renteria said.
• Yoan Moncada, who returned from the DL on Tuesday, was back on the bench as Renteria said he would be.
“I’m sure he wants to be back in there, but we’re going to take it one day at a time,’’ Renteria said.
Tim Anderson had a cold, Renteria said, and was a late scratch from the lineup. Saladino started in his place.
Minor details
The Sox’ list of high-end prospects, which has their farm system ranked first in baseball by MLB.com, didn’t translate in the win column for their minor-league teams. Only the Sox’ Rookie Arizona League team posted a winning record (30-26), with low Class A Kannapolis (68-69) the only entry playing in the postseason by virtue of a South Atlantic League first-half championship.
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Email: dvanschouwen@suntimes.com
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