White Sox’ Reynaldo Lopez strikes out seven in ‘best outing of spring’

White Sox 12, Rangers 2

All good for Lopez

After needing 33 pitches to fight through the first inning Saturday, Reynaldo Lopez needed 36 more to get through the next three, collecting seven strikeouts along the way and allowing one run in the kind of start he was looking for in Surprise.

“Today was my best outing of the spring so far,’’ Lopez said. “Everything was good. My timing was good. My pitches were good. My mechanics were good. We are progressing and improving. We are on the right path.”

Lopez allowed two walks and three hits. He took a 10.13 ERA over two starts into this one but felt OK-to-good about both outings. Lopez had a 3.91 ERA in 188⅔ innings in 2018.

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“I’m way advanced compared to last year,’’ he said, “because of experience.”

Hit parade

James McCann (.389) homered, Ryan Cordell doubled in two runs, Yolmer Sanchez (.381) singled three times and Yoan Moncada (.360), who struck out for the 10th time in four at-bats, continued to be productive with an RBI single batting right-handed — continuing a good spring from both sides of the plate. The Sox are 6-8-2.

O-fer for Eloy

Eloy Jimenez went 0-for-3 with his eighth strikeout in what has turned into a tough spring. Jimenez is 3-for-23 (.130) with one homer.

Relief at last

Ryan Burr (five appearances, one run, four hits, seven strikeouts, no walks) pitched a scoreless inning. Kelvin Herrera, in his second appearance since August, was perfect with three ground-ball outs. Herrera’s velocity (92-93) is still coming, but his breaking pitches looked good.

On deck

Athletics at Sox, Glendale, 3:05 p.m. Sunday, 720-AM, whitesox.com, Daniel Mengden vs. Lucas Giolito.