Hey there,
As he walks off the mound after completing an inning, Reynaldo López will look up, then point to the sky. Then he will continue walking into the dugout.
He started doing this in 2016, the year he debuted in the major leagues with the Nationals. López was raised a Christian.
“I thank God for being in this game and the (opportunity) we have to be at the top of this game,” he recently told me. “I just have to be grateful for everything that He gave to me.”
López came up with this – pointing to the sky after an inning – himself. It began with a promise he made before he even reached the big leagues.
“That was an (idea) to myself that I promised him that if I can make it to the big leagues, I’d be thankful for my whole career,” he said.
During the Braves’ May 13 off-day, ahead of a series in New York against the Mets, López and his mother were talking. They were reminded of something López did when he was 7 years old: He began praying to God that he would someday be in the majors.
Of course, at the time, he did not know how he would do this. He was a kid with a dream – he was unaware of the process of achieving it.
“I was talking to my mother about that, how great it is that I was praying for that – and I didn’t know how the big leagues were or how professional baseball is,” López said. “I was just a kid. I just played baseball. I didn’t know how I was gonna get to the big leagues. I just prayed for that. Yesterday, that came to mind: ‘Mom, you know what?’”
They reminisced on how Reynaldo began praying about his future.
López’s mother, also a Christian, always prayed for her son to be on a team that made him comfortable and allowed him to reach the big leagues quickly. And in 2012, López signed with a team.
“That’s when Washington signed me, and then she started crying for, like, a week,” López said.
When López was a boy, his grandfather sold one of the family’s cows to buy him a glove and a bat. This huge sacrifice was the ultimate display of love – an investment into a kid who just wanted to play the game. To this day, Reynaldo remains grateful.
López points to the sky to give gratitude to God for his career, but he also remembers his grandfather when he pitches. And he has a picture of his grandfather at home.
“God and (my grandfather), they did so much for me, so I have to remember that every time,” López said.
Faith has always been important to him. When López was 4 years old, his grandmother began taking him to church. She taught him how to pray.
Now, he’ll pray three times a day – including right when he wakes up and when he goes to sleep. He has a tiny room in his house for that. “There’s too much bad things going on right now in this world,” López said. Praying is the first and last thing López does each day.
López’s family members attend church every Sunday in Marietta – though he cannot go, because of his schedule. In the Dominican Republic, there’s a church close to where López grew up, and his family there attends church twice a week. They go on Tuesday for the Bible story, then on Sunday for regular service.
Last year, López’s grandfather died. His grandmother, who is responsible for instilling faith into him, is still alive.
He still keeps that close to him.
“I love Jesus, and I follow Him because he sacrificed his life for us,” López said. “So my love that I have for him is for that – not for the blessings or what he did for me.”
And each time on the mound, López makes his family proud.
When he walks off of it, he points to the sky as a way to give thanks.
Extra Innings
-Baseball can bring you a ton of fun and many great memories. It can also help you find … love?
Apparently.
Braves infielder Luke Williams – you learned about him in last week’s newsletter – has a cool story about that.
A few years ago, Williams got a call from Mickey Moniak, who is one of his best friends. Moniak is now with the Angels, but Williams and Moniak once both were in Philadelphia’s system.
“Hey Luke, I found the perfect girl for you,” Moniak told Williams.
“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Williams thought.
Her name was Marlia. She was the cousin of Moniak’s girlfriend (his current fiancée).
Williams and Marlia met up in Florida while he was in spring training with the Phillies. A week later, he was traded to the Giants.
Guess who lived in San Francisco?
Marlia.
“You know what?” Williams thought to himself at the time. “I know a girl here.”
So they hung out, and started dating. They’re still together.
-This is Braves closer Raisel Iglesias’ 10th season in the majors. And over the last few seasons, he’s stayed healthy, for the most part.
Since the start of the 2018 season, Iglesias has only been on the injured list twice – once in May 2018, then again at the start of last season, for a right shoulder strain.
“I feel like an athlete who’s been blessed with the good fortune of being a worker, and having the opportunity to work,” Iglesias said through interpreter Franco García. “And so I just come in every day and I put in a lot of the work, because the reality of my situation is, I’m not gonna actually pitch until 10 o’clock at night, so I take the opportunity that I have during the rest of the day to just prepare my body and put it the work for when I have that high-leverage moment.”
Iglesias has four injured-list stints in his career. But two came within his first calendar year as a major leaguer – one in 2015, one in 2016.
Hopefully this doesn’t jinx Iglesias. But his great health is an asset for Atlanta, which traded for him at the trade deadline in 2022.
-How’s this for a small world?
Zack Short, recently acquired by the Braves, went to Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Only three baseball players from the school have ever made it to the majors.
Short is one of them.
Another is Jason Foley, who has become a great reliever for the Tigers.
Short and Foley were teammates at Sacred Heart – and then with the Tigers!
Because of Austin Riley’s left side soreness, Short was thrust into starting games at third base. He’s played well.
His story – Sacred Heart didn’t have a baseball field or batting cages – is a cool one. You can read more about him here.
-On Wednesday, Ronald Acuña Jr. (scheduled off-day amid his struggles) and Austin Riley (left side tightness) were out of the lineup. Before this, Acuña had started every one of the Braves’ 39 games.
To this point, the top half of the Braves’ lineup – Acuña, Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, Matt Olson and Marcell Ozuna – has gone largely unchanged. If everyone is healthy, the Braves can pencil in these guys to the top five spots, which is a blessing. Manager Brian Snitker doesn’t need to think long and hard about his top half of the lineup.
Albies missed a week because of a toe fracture, but has been hit second and started at second base 32 times in 40 games. Before experiencing soreness in his left side, Riley had hit third 37 times – so, in all of the Braves’ games before his ailment. Olson and Ozuna have hit fourth and fifth, respectively, 40 and 37 times. Ozuna had hit fifth in every game before Riley missed time.
This is remarkable lineup consistency.
-In New York last weekend, I almost covered my first no-hitter. The Braves were one out away from ending a 30-year drought.
Then J.D. Martinez homered off Raisel Iglesias.
The win joined the unfortunate club of almost no-hitters. Another entry: In 2017, Mike Foltynewicz took a no-no into the ninth inning – with the Braves leading, 3-0 – before it was broken up with no outs.
The guy who ended it?
Olson.
