MINNEAPOLIS — Before Lance Lynn got pounded by the Twins for four home runs Friday night, White Sox manager Pedro Grifol touted the veteran right-hander’s ability to adapt at this point in his career.
Lynn had a 16-strikeout game against the Mariners in June, two 10-strikeout efforts in April and an 11-strikeout game in which he pitched seven scoreless innings and received a no-decision against the Blue Jays in his last start before the All-Star break.
But Lynn also has allowed 28 homers, the most in the majors, and with five runs allowed in the first inning of a 9-4 loss, his ERA in the first inning ballooned to 10.80. Alex Kirilloff and Byron Buxton hit the seventh and eighth homers Lynn has given up in the first, and Buxton homered again against Lynn in the fourth. So did Ryan Jeffers.
And with that, the Sox fell to 41-58 and 10 games behind the first-place Twins (51-48) in the American League Central. The 17 games below the .500 mark tied the low-water point for the Sox, who are waiting around to see who will get dealt before the Aug. 1 trade deadline.
Thought to be a potential target for a contending team because of his career numbers and flashes of excellence, Lynn (6-9, 6.18 ERA), who was traded from the Twins to the Yankees before the 2018 deadline, did nothing to enhance his value three days after Lucas Giolito did the same, laying an eight-run egg against the Mets on Tuesday.
Whether he was speaking from a place of respect for Lynn, 36, a former All-Star in the second year of a two-year, $38 million deal with a club option for next season, or sprucing up a sales pitch for a prospective buyer, Grifol genuinely admires what Lynn has done in his career, even lately.
“His ability to adapt, his eagerness to adapt,” Grifol said. “He started off as a fastball-cutter-changeup guy, and now he’s got a fastball, changeup, cutter, sweeper, slider that he mixes. He knows how to pitch. Have an appreciation for that, guys that continue to adapt to the game and just continue to pitch at a high level after 12 years, 13 years.”
In typical Lynn fashion, he stayed the course through this big-numbered start, putting up zeros in the second, third, fifth and sixth innings. And Lynn should have had a zero in the seventh, too, but didn’t because right fielder Zach Remillard muffed Carlos Correa’s fly ball with two outs for a two-base error.
Lynn then walked Edouard Julien before Kirilloff doubled to drive in two runs. At 100 pitches, that was it for Lynn, who finished with this line: 6⅔ innings, nine runs (six earned), eight hits, three walks and six strikeouts.
“Made a couple of mistakes, had some bad luck, gave up a bunch of runs,” Lynn said. “You make a pitch, it wasn’t an out in the bad innings. It’s just part of the game. But when it’s all said and done, I gave up four home runs. It’s hard to win when you do that.”
It wasn’t the first time Lynn got a raw deal from his fielders. Second baseman Elvis Andrus misplayed two balls in the first inning that, if played well, could have limited the damage to one run instead of five.
“We didn’t play good baseball,” Grifol said.
Andrew Benintendi hit Joe Ryan’s first pitch of the game for his second homer, and Yasmani Grandal homered for the eighth time and his second time in four games in the sixth, a two-run shot against Ryan to close the deficit to 7-4.
“It’s easy to look at the standings and think that you’re out of it,” Benintendi said. “But you just got to keep your head, keep working and show up every day ready to play, and chips will fall where they may.”
