CHICAGO _ Rick Renteria strolled to the mound Sunday with an open hand and an open mind. After misfiring with his 101st pitch to issue a 3-2 walk, White Sox right-hander Reynaldo Lopez would have to convince his manager to let him keep the baseball.
"You need to have conviction if I'm going to leave you in there," Renteria said.
With the Rangers' Shin-Soo Choo coming to the plate with the White Sox winning 3-0, the conversation concluded like this, albeit in Spanish ...
Lopez: "This is my guy."
Renteria: "So get him."
Lopez fired a 96-mph heater to fan Choo and finish the inning. He pounded his chest to celebrate the best pitched game of his young career.
"I was focused and kept the focus the whole game," he said. "I didn't hesitate on any of my pitches."
Lopez threw a career-high eight innings Sunday, allowing just two hits and two walks, in the Sox's 3-0 victory. He earned his first win of the season _ and the Sox managed to post back-to-back home W's for the first time all year.
Most significant is what this means for Lopez, 24, who came to Chicago with Lucas Giolito and Dane Dunning from the Nationals in the Adam Eaton deal.
Lopez dominated a bad (18-30) Rangers team on a pitcher's day _ 45 degrees with wind out of the north at 15 mph. And home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez's strike zone was large enough that Matt Davidson got rung up each time he came to the plate _ four backward K's.
Still this was big for the Dominican native, who got shelled five days earlier in Pittsburgh, with Renteria citing a "lack of focus."
After watching Lopez whiff eight Rangers, Renteria said: "The intensity level was a little higher. He threw the first couple pitches 97, 98 miles an hour, where his last outing they were at 93, 94."
And, hey, he pulled off a hidden-ball trick.
Asked about the mound meeting with Renteria, Lopez replied: "I hid the baseball in my glove because I didn't want to leave the game."
Catcher Welington Castillo supported Garcia with a 430-foot blast to left, and Leury Garcia drove in a pair with a single.
Closed door, open possibility: Jace Fry was thrilled with what transpired Sunday, saying: "I'm just giddy inside. Smiling. I can't believe that it actually happened. I'm just extremely grateful."
Fry will surely be a popular fantasy pickup after completing a 1-2-3 ninth for his first career save. The 24-year-old left-hander, whom the Sox plucked out of Oregon State in the third round of the 2014 draft, has pitched 8 1/3 innings this season without allowing a hit.
Renteria said before Sunday's game that he didn't want to tag Fry as the "closer of the future" because of the "pressure" that would apply. The manager said afterward that he chose Fry in the ninth because of matchups.
Whatever the case, whatever the inning, Fry has been outstanding. He has retired 25 of 27 batters.
Asked if he wants the closer's job, Fry replied: "I just want to get outs. I don't really care where they throw me in the game. But if you get the lefties out and then get the righties out, then maybe one day you can get that direction."
