The first inning could have gone away from Lance Lynn and the Chicago White Sox.
First there was a walk. Then left fielder Andrew Benintendi couldn’t catch a nice diving attempt that resulted in a double. Finally, grounder to third Yuan Moncada was trying unsuccessfully to tag out the runner going back to the bag.
With that, the Detroit Tigers had the bases loaded with no outs.
Somehow, Lynn limited the loss to one run. It was crucial in Friday’s 12-3 victory in front of 21,701 at Comerica Park.
“Walking to the leadoff guy after getting three (runs) is not what you want to do,” Lin said. “We were able to do some things and I was only able to get out of it with one, and the rest is like history.”
Lin allowed three runs, one earned, on three hits with five strikeouts and five walks in six innings.
A great outing for Lance, manager Pedro Grifol said. “He was challenged on things that were out of his control. He had 56 pitches in his first two innings and had to cut some pitches economically.
“(He) threw a total of 24 pitches in the third, fourth and fifth and he pitched his best for me. The challenges he had to go through. He kept making pitches.”
The Sox (22-31) moved into the American League Central with a five-game sweep of first-place Minnesota and the Twins’ 3-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Lin received plenty of offensive support as the Sox got 17 hits, including four by Tim Anderson and three by Moncada. Anderson scored three runs and Moncada had three RBIs.
Andrew Vaughn also hit a two-run homer, driving in three and knocking in one with a double.
“We batted really well from one through nine,” Vaughn said.
Vaughn helped give Lynn a three-run lead before throwing his first pitch, which opened the scoring with an RBI double. Yasmani Grandel drove in two with one out as the Sox scored all three with two outs.
“That’s important. Two RBIs are critical to a team’s success,” Grifol said. “The other club is almost out of it, they think they’re out of it and all of a sudden you get a big base hit with two outs and you put a crooked number on the board — that’s really big. “
The Tigers were in position to get back into the game in the bottom of the first, loading the bases with no outs. Lynn struck out Spencer Torkelson, and Nick Matton lined out Vaughn at first base. Lynn then got Akil Badu to hit a grounder to third. A rampaging Moncada had no game for a run-scoring infield hit.
Lynn struck out Miguel Cabrera to keep it 3-1.
“He just kept hitting the strike zone with really good stuff,” Grifol said. “He’s going from strength to strength. What I love about him is (Friday) and every day there’s nothing he’s more nervous about. He gets crazy but that kind of gets his adrenaline going. Is.
The Sox answered with a run in the second on an RBI triple by Benintendi.
It was the first of three triples for the Sox, their most in a game since hitting three against the San Francisco Giants at Guaranteed Rate Field on September 9, 2017. The second came in the fourth when Clint Frazier tripled and scored on Hanser Alberto’s groundout.
Moncada drove in a run with a triple, and Vaughn followed with a two-run homer in the fifth, extending the lead to 8-1.
That was more than enough for Lynn, who allowed one hit over his final five innings.
“Throughout the season you’re going to have times when you feel good and times when you don’t. You just have to take it with the day,” Lynn said. “Even when I got behind, I was able to make pitches and the defense played really well behind me.
“Just keep getting better every day. The walks were bad, but you’ve got to make a pitch here and there to get out of an inning.
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