Lopez (4-2) earned the win Sunday against the Padres. He allowed one run on six hits and a walk while striking out three over 4.2 innings.
After Luis Medina recorded four outs as the opener, Lopez entered in the second inning and was able to work through traffic to limit the Padres' scoring efforts en route to the win. The southpaw has struggled with homers this season but managed to keep the ball in the yard Sunday after allowing at least one long ball in each of his previous four appearances. It remains to be seen whether the Athletics will continue deploying Lopez behind an opener, though he'll carry a 5.73 ERA, 1.77 WHIP and 35:31 K:BB across 48.2 innings (11 games) into his next outing, which is tentatively scheduled for Saturday against the Yankees.