Lopez (4-7) took the loss Saturday, giving up five runs on nine hits -- including two home runs -- in 7.2 innings against the Royals. He struck out seven.
He was quite strong through seven innings, in which he allowed three of the tallies, but a two-run homer by Salvador Perez marred the potential for a brilliant end-game box score. Lopez peppered the strike zone on 79 of his 108 pitches, which combined with the zero in the walks column shows what the 24-year-old's upside might look like on a semi-consistent basis. His 3.91 ERA looks good but notes a continued regression of results that were above his head early on, though he might find matchup-based value in some mixed fantasy leagues in the second half.