The Chicago White Sox were three outs from perhaps a momentum-turning victory Friday.

But three big swings from the Tampa Bay Rays turned the game into a crushing defeat.

The Rays scored three in the ninth against reliever Reynaldo López to beat the Sox 8-7 in front of 17,973 at Tropicana Field.

With the Sox leading 7-5, the Rays’ Christian Bethancourt homered to right to lead off the bottom of the ninth. Yandy Díaz singled. And Brandon Lowe ended the game with a two-run blast to right.

López said it came down to bad pitch location.

“The pitches right in the middle,” he said. “I couldn’t hit the spot today.”

The Sox have lost seven of nine and 10 of 14. They fought back from a four-run deficit to take the lead, only to see Rays storm back in the ninth.

“We all trust Lopey and I’ll trust him again tomorrow,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “He left a couple of balls up, and I’ll give him the ball again tomorrow.”

Grifol said the message to López is “Just keep going.”

“He’s given us plenty of good innings in the eighth and ninth,” Grifol said. “Don’t get down on yourself. You have good stuff. You are good at what you do.

“He left two pitches up and they did what they are supposed to do with it. But again, give him the ball tomorrow again. He’s done it for us this year and he’s gone multiple innings and plus-1s. So I’m not losing confidence or any faith in López.”

López said Grifol’s words “means a lot.”

“What happened today is today,” López said. “Tomorrow is another day. Just turn the page and try to be the best tomorrow.”

The Sox made an impressive turnaround just to be in position for a potential victory.

Josh Lowe’s two-run double and Harold Ramírez’s two-run homer gave the Rays a 4-0 lead after the first.

Sox starter Michael Kopech bounced back, settling in to go five innings. He allowed one more run the rest of his outing.

“I think I finally found my rhythm with everything,” Kopech said. “Found some depth on my curveball and ultimately my fastball came back (Friday) and I found the rhythm getting my arm up on time and getting extension out there again.

“I relied heavily on that, especially after that first. Got hit pretty hard with my slider in the first inning. Never want to shy away from a pitch but when your strengths are working you go with your strengths, so I tried to do that (Friday).”

Kopech allowed five runs on six hits with nine strikeouts and four walks. But the stats only paint part of the picture.

“I know that once he took the mound again in the second, he was just really, really aggressive,” Grifol said. “And looked like a different guy. He started using that fastball and fastball up in the zone. He kept guys a little bit uncomfortable. They were taking big swings up in the zone and they just weren’t catching up to it.

“He started mixing in some offspeed stuff. He ended up doing a great job and got a big, big out in the fifth.”

The Sox scored three runs in the second and three in the third to take a 6-4 lead. They drew six walks in the third, the first time since 1969 that they had that many in an inning.

Eloy Jiménez homered in the fourth, his first of the season. The Rays answered with a run in the bottom of the inning, and the game remained 7-5 until the ninth thanks to scoreless innings from Sox relievers Jimmy Lambert, Kendall Graveman and Aaron Bummer.

The Rays showed why they have the best record in baseball with the ninth-inning fireworks, handing the Sox a difficult loss.

“They are all difficult,” Grifol said. “A loss is a loss in the big leagues, and we just have to keep going. We’ve played (20) games and we have to keep going. You’ve got to come back tomorrow and flush this one and … get after it tomorrow.”

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