After an abysmal first half of the 2019 season, Reynaldo Lopez stood at his locker and made a promise.
“You're going to see a different pitcher going forward for the second half of the season,” he said on the Fourth of July, through team interpreter Billy Russo.
And for a while, he delivered. In his first six starts out of the All-Star break, he had a 2.13 ERA.
But the same inability to find consistency that bedeviled him in the first half didn’t stay away for long, and he stumbled to the finish line — save a complete-game shutout with 11 strikeouts one night in Cleveland — and ended the season with a 5.