DETROIT _ Well, that unraveled quickly.
The White Sox looked like they might dominate early Friday night. Yoan Moncada leadoff's double and two runs in the first inning signaled Sox hitters were dialed into Tigers starter Mike Fiers while Sox counterpart Reynaldo Lopez didn't allow a hit until the fourth inning.
But it all fell apart in the eighth of an eventual 5-4 loss.
The Sox were nursing a 4-2 lead when Bruce Rondon relieved Lopez, and the Tigers feasted. Jose Iglesias doubled to lead off the inning and Leonys Martin's liner drove him in to make it 4-3.
Nicholas Castellanos doubled to left, and Martin tucked his arm in to dodge Sox catcher Omar Narvaez's tag to tie the game _ it didn't hurt that the relay from left field was a bit wide. The tag looked close, Renteria challenged, but the call was upheld after review.
The final ignominy was Sox first baseman Jose Abreu losing track of Jeimer Candelario's short fly, which dropped to his side to score Castellanos to give the Tigers a 5-4 lead that held up for the victory at Comerica Park.
Still, it wasn't all bad news.
Perhaps what's most promising about Lopez's night is what went wrong rather than what went right.
The Sox starter was humming along in, throwing 97 mph out of the gate and mixing in a slider that Tigers batters couldn't get a bead on. After keeping the Tigers hitless, Lopez found himself in jeopardy in the fourth when Castellanos hit a double that Trayce Thompson misplayed. Thompson had two viable options: catch up to the fast-sinking fly ball or realize he couldn't get to it in time to play it off the hop. He accomplished neither.
After putting out Candelario, Lopez threw a wild pitch that scored Martin, who had singled before Castellanos' double, and he punched his glove in frustration. It was at this juncture that Lopez could have unraveled but he kept his composure. Castellanos scored on Victor Martinez's groundout but Lopez got Nike Goodrum to ground out and limited the damage to two runs.
Lopez faced a couple of other tight situations but managed to escape _ a seventh-inning double play from Yolmer Sanchez to Moncada to Abreu certainly helped. He threw 96 pitches in his seven innings, giving up two runs on five hits.
The Sox continued to make head-scratching baserunning choices. When Daniel Palka slapped a single to right field he made a slight pause at first base and then was nailed trying to stretch it into a double.
Adam Engel made a similarly puzzling decision three games ago.
