News
Astros' Lopez tosses four hitless innings
Righty combines with 'pen on two-hitter for Saguaros
By Danny Wild / MLB.com
11/16/09 6:36 PM EST
Wilton Lopez is likely done pitching this fall and he ended his second Arizona Fall League campaign with his best effort of the season.Lopez, who reached the Majors with Houston in August, struck out three over four hitless innings as the Peoria Saguaros held the Scottsdale Scorpions to a pair of hits in an 8-0 shutout on Monday afternoon.
"He looked great, he really commanded his pitches well, just went right after guys," Matt McBride said of his starter. "He got ahead with his fastball and threw his off-speed pitches for strikes ahead in the count."
Lopez, claimed off waivers by Houston in April, threw 32 of his 45 pitches for strikes and walked one batter in his fifth start of the fall season. Peoria reliever Connor Graham (Indians) surrendered a leadoff single to Thomas Neal (Giants) in the fifth to end the no-hitter bid.
"He's a great pitcher," McBride said of Lopez, who went 3-1 with a 3.72 ERA in six appearances for Peoria. "He went out and was aggressive."
Indians prospect McBride gave Lopez a lead with a two-out RBI single to left field in the first inning. The backstop, who is batting .369, doubled in the fourth, walked in the fifth, drew a bases-loaded free pass to plate Jose Vallejo (Astros) in the sixth and singled again in the eighth.
"I just tried to battle, got lucky, it was one of those sort of swings where you just get the barrel on it," McBride said of his RBI single. "It sort of floated over for a single. It wasn't pretty, but I got it."
Lopez cruised in his start with an early edge. He struck out two in the second, walking Neal with one out and induced three grounders in the third. He hit the leadoff man in the fourth, Brian Friday (Pirates), but worked out of the inning when Jose Tabata (Pirates) bounced into a double play and Domonic Brown (Phillies) popped up to left.
"He's got a really good fastball with movement. We got ahead and wanted to be aggressive with the fastball," said McBride. "We started some with off-speed to keep them honest, but his fastball has a lot of movement."
Lopez hit 93 mph on the ballpark's radar gun twice, including on his final pitch to retire Brown, mixing in his four-seamer with a slider and a mid-80s change.
The 25-year-old from Leon, Nicaragua, appeared in eight Major League games with the Astros in 2009, allowing 18 runs in 19 1/3 innings over two starts and six relief outings. He spent three seasons in the Minors with the Padres and Yankees before joining Houston on April 10, 2009.
Originally signed by the Yankees as a non-drafted free agent in 2002, he pitched at three levels within the Padres farm system in 2008, reaching Triple-A with a combined 58 relief outings.
McBride finished 3-for-4 after going hitless in his previous three games. He had a breakout season in 2009, batting a combined .287 with 18 homers and 99 RBIs for Class A Advanced Kinston and Double-Akron.
"I'm really just trying to have good, quality at-bats throughout my time here," McBride said. "The competition is great, all the pitchers are great, so I'm just trying to stay within myself, not chase bad pitches and work on seeing pitches."
Selected by the Indians out of Lehigh University in the second supplemental round of the 2006 Draft, McBride followed a solid 2008 campaign by hitting .405 in 31 games for Kinston this spring.
McBride is hitting .367 against right-handers and .375 against lefties in Arizona. The Bethlehem, Pa. native has a .506 on-base percentage.
"I'm basically not chasing and going out of my zone," he said. "I think I've still got a ways to go, but I did a good job. It's something for me to build off and go into next season trying to learn."
Peoria began piling on the runs in the fifth when Carlos Rivero (Indians) hit a leadoff homer off Cesar Valdez (D-backs). The Saguaros scored five in the sixth after Cedric Hunter (Padres) knocked in Brandon Hicks (Braves), Lance Zawadzki (Padres) lined a two-RBI single and McBride and Hicks drew consecutive bases-loaded walks. Rivero came home on an error in the seventh for the final run.
Diamondbacks right-hander Bryan Augenstein started for Scottsdale and suffered his fourth loss, allowing a run on four hits over four innings. Chase d'Arnaud (Pirates) had Scottsdale's other hit.
Danny Wild is an editor for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
