Twins 6, White Sox 3: Lance Lynn Struggles Again
If you could ignore the 3rd inning, then Lance Lynn and the White Sox would have had a tidy little win over the Twins Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, they’re still counting all nine these days, so a couple of booming home runs off the bats off Carlos Correa and Jorge Polanco were enough to win it for Minnesota and put a damper on the Sox Machine / #108ing road trip to Target Field.
Lynn only gave up seven baserunners in 5 innings, but six of them came around to score on the Twins’ three big hits. A leadoff homer by Luis Arraez put Minnesota up 1-0 in the first. Lynn recovered to retire seven of the next nine hitters, but with Gary Sanchez on first base and one out in the third, Carlos Correa blasted a hanging slider 421 feet to make it a three-run lead.
Back-to-back singles from Byron Buxton and Max Kepler put two more runners aboard, and led to a mound visit from Ethan Katz. Whatever Katz said didn’t work, because Jorge Polanco bludgeoned a first pitch fastball on the outside corner just over the extra-high wall in rightfield to make it 6-0.
On the other side, despite Dylan Bundy‘s generally weak season, the Sox’s best offensive opportunities came mostly thanks to do shoddy defense from Minnesota. They scratched a run across in the 4th, when Yoan Moncada beat out an infield single to the third base side. Moncada advanced to second on a passed ball, then to third when Andrew Vaughn‘s flyball to the wall popped out of Kepler’s glove. Jose Abreu knocked in Moncada with a groundout, but Gavin Sheets popped up to strand Vaughn at third.
The story was similar in the 6th. Tim Anderson hit a single off Gio Urshela‘s glove, then Moncada hit a bloop double into no man’s land behind Urshela, giving the Sox another opportunity with runners on 2nd and 3rd and one out. This time, Vaughn smoked a single down the first base line, scoring both Anderson and Moncada. Jose Abreu walked to keep the line moving, but Sheets grounded out and AJ Pollock lined out to keep it 6-3 Twins.
The Sox had another chance to make some noise in the 8th. Moncada and Abreu sandwiched singles around a Vaughn strikeout, but this time Sheets struck out while Pollock again lined out. It was a tough day for the middle of the order… Lineup spots 9 through 4 (Engel, Anderson, Moncada, Vaughn, Abreu) combined to go 9 for 19 with two doubles, two BBs, and two Ks; spots 5 through 8 (Sheets, Pollock, Harrison, Zavala) went 0 for 16 with 5 K’s and a GIDP.
On the plus side, it looks like that didn’t stop the Sox fans in attendance from having a grand ol’ time.
Correa hit that ball so far it was almost like he knew what pitch was coming.
Nice to see everybody had a good time there! Disappointing the team couldn’t score anymore but when you got a guy like Bundy whos painting the middle of the plate with 89mph stuff any team would struggle with that.
Pity about that game. Cease vs TBD tomorrow is a great chance to secure a series win tho
BY GAWD! THAT’S JOHAN SANTANA’S MUSIC! NOOOOO!!!!!!
The spirit of Dallas Keuchel appears to have taken over Lance Lynn’s body. Pretty convincing.
I was at the game but I missed the get-together. I wanted to get to the part early to make sure I got my Jim Kaat bobblehead. The Correa HR landed about ten feet from me in the mid-upper deck leftfield section: definitely a no-doubter. Generally, the Sox seem to be having good at-bats. Abreu drew the only two walks but they generally make Bundy work still they failed to really punish so rather ordinary right-handed pitching.
I am a bit concerned about Lance Lynn. He’s clearly making some mistake pitches due to a lack of command and/or a lack of movement on his pitches. However, I think he’s healthy due to the fact that his fastball today averaged 92.7 mph and topped out at 95.4 mph. He also got 14 swing and misses today on 91 pitches which I think is a good sign. I’ve heard some comparisons to Keuchel recently but I think Lynn is much more likely to get back on track than Keuchel at this point in their careers.
Yeah, the stuff seems fine. The difference between this outing and last year was scattershot command, even though he didn’t walk anyone. That might come as he goes along.
It’s unclear to me whom you are quoting. I concede there is reason to be concerned about Lynn. I just think lumping Lynn and Keuchel together is facile.
Entering today, Lynn this year was in the 86th percentile for spin rate, the 56th percentile for whiff%, and the 85th percentile for barrel% and his FIP was 4.18. This is very different than Keuchel. To me, it is clear that Keuchel is done and it is not clear Lynn is done.
I agree- Keuchel was finished, Lynn is recovering from surgery. Patience.
I don’t feel bad about this loss simply because Cease gives us a heck of a chance to win the series tomorrow.
Taking 3 of 4 in Minnesota will be huge.
Let’s hope. We heard a lot about his splits versus Detroit heading into his start in that series. Versus Minnesota he has 7 career starts with a 1-4 record, 7.64 ERA, and 1.85 WHIP. Their slash line versus Cease is .319/.405/.563. Small sample and all that, but worth keeping in mind…
Lynn’s best start his year was the one in SF (6 IP, 3 H, 0 ER). He also had an extra day of rest before that start. Given his size and history of recent knee injuries and surgery, it’s worth trying to give him more rest until he seems 100%.
It is amazing that diet and exercise don’t apply to MLB pitchers. Is there nothing in their contract to ensure a healthy diet with exercise? If so, Lynn has 6 cheat days / week.
He was listed at 250 lbs when he was drafted. Hasn’t prevented success.
Honestly would be worried about him losing too much weight. You get used to the mechanics of pitching with a certain body type your whole career. Changing the mass distribution too much would likely throw that off.
It isn’t just that he was big when he was drafted…he was big when we traded for him, big when we re-signed him, and big when we decided not to acquire another starter in the off-season.
I am calling BS on defending his obesity.
Certainly losing it all in one day would change his delivery. Who knows, it might help but over time, I challenge whether it would be noticeable to him at all.
An extra 75 lbs. isn’t healthy for anyone and certainly that additional weight pounding on his knee isn’t helping now or in his future.
If I am full of shit, then Cueto is wasting his time running and we are too for talking about it.
Extra weight can never be underestimated. During lockdows I gained about 10 lbs from working from home. I was already in need to lose 20 lbs. I have always managed to play in my adult soccer league rarely missing a game. Yeah, I moved slow back then and I move slow now but there’s a big difference this year. My legs are barking. My hamstring is constantly in pain. I have missed various games and I leave the games limping and with all sort of legs, knees and ankles aches. It has to be the weight. It’s the only thing that has changed other than I am a year older.
Is there not enough money spent on analytics and training staff to help the Sox front office figure this out? Is there not enough incentive to win that they would rather stubbornly stick to a 5-man rotation rather than try something new to that might help them win?
There is a reason that we look to certain teams as model organizations and usually it starts with finding creative solutions to problems and maybe even to trying something no one else is trying. Alas, the Sox are not one of those teams.
I think he’s cooked. Between stints on the IL this who he will be. Choosing Rodon at his number or Lynn at his was a no-brainer and per usual Hahn got it wrong.