Rays 3, White Sox 1: Better late than never for Reynaldo Lopez

Reynaldo Lopez needed a few innings to find a groove in his return from the disabled list.

Or ... Lopez had a Logan Morrison problem.

Either way, two big hits by Morrison prevented an encouraging Lopez outing being anything more, as the White Sox dropped the opener against the Rays for their fourth consecutive loss.

Morrison belted a hanging Lopez changeup out to right for a two-run shot in the first inning, then swatted a hanging curve to right for an RBI single in the third.

Lopez settled down to retire the last 11 he faced for a quality start. He allowed the three runs on five hits and a walk while striking out seven, and with a pitch count of just 85, he could have returned to pitch the seventh if he weren’t fresh off an injury.

Alas, the Sox had to settle for a moral victory with Lopez because the Sox’ aggressive approach didn’t work against Blake Snell.

The White Sox struck out just once against the Tampa Bay lefty, and just four times on the night overall, in contrast to 10 strikeouts for Rays hitters. However, the Sox couldn’t get the ball past Adeiny Hechavarria at short. He started 6-4-3 double plays in three consecutive innings, and when the Sox loaded the bases with two walks and a single after two outs in the seventh, he snared a Tim Anderson liner to kill that dream, too.

Perhaps the Rays had already donated their one extra out of the evening in the second inning. Kevan Smith doubled with one down, and two batters later, Leury Garcia hit a grounder to the right side. Morrison gloved it far off first, but had to try to lead Snell to the bag to beat Garcia, who was sniffing out a hit. Instead, Morrison threw behind the receiver, and Smith scored from first to cut Tampa Bay’s 2-0 lead in half.

Garcia dove into the bag and had to leave with a bruised hand. With Jose Abreu out for one more game with a bruised elbow, Rick Renteria had to stretch his defense out of position. Matt Davidson moved from first to third, Yolmer Sanchez went from third to second, and Omar Narvaez entered to play first. He made a nice scoop, but he also dropped a high throw from Tim Anderson, which showed why first baseman are usually on the other side of 6 feet tall.

Record: 52-81 | Box score