Jacob Lopez’s return to the A’s rotation came with a clearer shape and a better result.
After being optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas in May following a rough outing in which he was tagged for seven runs in two innings, Lopez said he would go down and “figure out” what had gone wrong. On Sunday afternoon at Sutter Health Park, he looked far more like the pitcher Oakland believed in last season, even if the A’s still fell 5-2 to the Nationals.
Lopez held Washington to two runs on two hits and two walks while striking out six over 4 1/3 innings. He was on a limited pitch count in his first Major League start since returning from Triple-A, and manager Mark Kotsay pulled him after 84 pitches with one out in the fifth. Against a Nationals lineup that entered the day leading MLB with 540 runs scored, Lopez gave the A’s enough to stay in it.
“Jacob did a nice job,” Kotsay said. “His execution was much better.
Navigating that lineup, he did a great job of keeping us [in the game]. We took it as far as we could.”
There were still a couple of familiar trouble spots. Nasim Nuñez opened the third with a single, then stole second and third before scoring on a groundout.
In the fourth, Lopez hit Dylan Crews with a pitch, and Harry Ford followed with a double that brought in another run. But even with those lapses, this was a cleaner outing than the one that sent him down in the first place.
Lopez had posted a 6.75 ERA in 12 games, 10 of them starts, before the demotion. Sunday felt more like a reset than a breakthrough, but it was a reset the A’s badly needed.
“Realistically, I wasn’t expecting to go six-plus,” Lopez said. “Mentally, I wanted to.
But to at least get into the fifth, I thought it was a decent job. … It was a little step in the right direction.
I know I can be better with the strikes and just attacking those righties a little bit better.”
The organization is still banking on the version of Lopez it saw last season, when he was one of the league’s most effective rookies over his final 13 starts before season-ending elbow surgery in August. During that stretch, he went 7-2 with 85 strikeouts over 70 2/3 innings and posted a 2.17 ERA.
Kotsay said the time in Triple-A helped Lopez settle down and make changes.
“I think the time in Triple-A allowed him to breathe and make some adjustments,” Kotsay said. “Those adjustments have led to some success.
We’ve seen the success here at the Major League level. I think this is a great transition for him to come back and get this opportunity to perform well for us.”
One of the biggest signs of progress Sunday was the slider. Lopez leaned on it more than any other pitch, throwing it 40 times, and 12 of his 14 whiffs came on that pitch. He used it to finish four of his six strikeouts.
For Lopez, the formula was straightforward.
“Just pounding the strike zone,” Lopez said. “Today, I walked two guys in the first inning, but I think I did a decent job of getting back to throwing strikes.”
The A’s, now 42-57, need that kind of outing to become a regular thing. They’ve lost 19 of their past 23 games, and Sunday’s offense didn’t do Lopez many favors. After exploding for a season-high 15 runs on Saturday night, Oakland managed only two runs despite 11 hits, going 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and leaving nine on base.
“We just couldn’t get the big hit to get back in that game,” Kotsay said. “The guys took good at-bats. … We couldn’t put them together enough and capitalize with some guys in scoring position with two outs.”
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