‘Best-case scenario,’ Reynaldo López is back in Braves’ rotation

Whether López is “that guy” or not is a legitimate question.

On Wednesday at Truist Park against the Cardinals, in his second start within the last week after having not started a game since April 21, López pitched five innings and threw 69 pitches (44 for strikes), struck out six and allowed just one run on two hits in the Braves’ 5-1 win.

He certainly looked the part.

“Man, looked like 2024 ‘Lopey,’ and that’s what we were hoping for,” Weiss said. “I talked about him trending in a good direction, and I mean that was really good (Wednesday). Not only velocity, but the slider was his old slider. So that was really encouraging. Like I said before the game, if we get that ‘Lopey’ in the rotation, that’s a huge boost for us.”

López said via team interpreter Franco Garcia: “Just really been trying to prepare mentally and, like I’ve stated before, really my whole goal is to just help the team win in whatever way that I can.”

The Cardinals’ only run Wednesday, and both their hits, came in the first inning. López gave up a one-out walk in the third inning and nothing else.

“Definitely in the first inning, I felt like I was probably rushing myself a little bit and just getting ahead of myself,” López said. “So I think one of the adjustments I was trying to focus on was just keeping my weight back on my back leg and letting it all just carry together.”

The Braves had moved López to the bullpen in late April after he went 1-1 with a 3.74 ERA in five starts to begin the season. The 32-year-old Dominican gave up four runs on five hits and was pulled in the second inning of a start in Washington, D.C., on April 21.

In the 13 relief appearances since, López was 2-0 with a 3.27 ERA over 22 innings in which he struck out 19 hitters. His last two outings — both starts that covered a combined eight innings — resulted in six hits and two earned runs allowed, seven strikeouts and a walk.

López’s performance Wednesday equates to Hurston Waldrep making his first start in a Braves uniform this season Thursday against the Cardinals. Waldrep pitched two-plus innings of relief Friday in San Francisco against the Giants and threw 55 pitches. In his final Triple-A start for Gwinnett, he threw 71.

The Braves on Wednesday also announced their rotation for the upcoming four-game series with the Mets starting Friday: Grant Holmes (4-4, 3.96) will start Friday, Chris Sale (8-6, 2.10) on Saturday, Martín Pérez (6-5, 3.27) on Sunday and López (4-1, 3.31) on Monday.

Bryce Elder (5-6, 4.01) is skipping a turn in the order.

“There were some good things on the horizon, even through this (recent) tough stretch. You look down the road and there’s some nice pieces coming back,” Weiss said, alluding to Waldrep’s return and the possible addition of AJ Smith-Shawver. “Then you add Lopey to that and now you start to dream big again and think about, certainly playing better, but hopefully getting on a roll again at some point.

“I think when we start to get these pieces back — the arms are certainly going to help — I think there’s good things ahead.”