White Sox to monitor Reynaldo Lopez’s workload

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Reynaldo Lopez is greeted by teammates Friday night. | Getty Images

Reynaldo Lopez’s White Sox debut Friday was impressive. He allowed two runs in six innings and struck out six, throwing 102 pitches.

The Sox will try not to overwork the 23-year-old righty. Before being called up, Lopez already had thrown 121 innings at Class AAA Charlotte.

“I’m sure we are going to watch his workload. I think everybody is very cognizant of pitch counts,” Sox manager Rick Renteria said Saturday. “Like we talked about last night, he has wipeout type stuff. He can strike out a lot of guys. Those guys tend to elevate in their pitch counts sometimes. We will be mindful of that.”

For Lopez, one key to throwing plenty of successful innings with the Sox is working efficiently. Renteria thinks he’ll be able to develop that ability and figure out ways to get contact earlier in at-bats.

“Can you induce more contact? I’m sure you can. You don’t want to take away the ability for the guy to do what he does naturally,” Renteria said. “But I think time and experience might lead him toward doing things like that at certain moments.”

Jawing with Ricky

Willy Garcia, who suffered a broken jaw in that nasty collision with Yoan Moncada on July 31, has started eating solid food.

“I know from just a general healing process it’s approximately four to six weeks and he’s able to eat and he’s still able to run and do other things that obviously don’t affect the healing process in his jaw,” Renteria said. “Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later, but we’ll take our time with him and allow him to heal as he needs.”

Renteria, meanwhile, recalled having a “very similar break” but having “multiple breaks in the jaw” after getting hit with a line drive during his playing career.

Waiting on Davidson

Matt Davidson (bruised right wrist) felt something when he tried to swing Friday and possibly won’t be back Tuesday, when the Sox open a two-game series in Los Angeles against the Dodgers.

“Right now, I couldn’t give you a time certain as to when he will return, but just know that he’s still feeling it a little bit and we’re going to try to do everything we can to continue to calm it down and then get him ready to return,” Renteria said. “What steps we take we haven’t decided quite yet, but right now he’s taking a step back and we’re going to just make sure that he’s feeling very good about where he’s at physically.”

The Sox put Davidson on the 10-day disabled list Tuesday, retroactive to Aug. 4.

More Melky

Royals manager Ned Yost was asked what Melky Cabrera has meant to the team since he was dealt by the Sox on July 30. Yost effusively praised Cabrera, who also played for the Royals in 2011.

“He’s been a very solid offensive contributor since he’s been here,” Yost said. “Attitude in the clubhouse — of course we all know what kind of person he is. Tremendous clubhouse presence with his teammates. [He] was before when he was here and [when] these kids were all coming up and absolutely is now.”

Cabrera, who homered in the eighth inning Saturday, his hitting .314 since the trade.

Follow me on Twitter @BrianSandalow.

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