Lynn ties White Sox record, K's 16 over 114 pitches

SEATTLE -- On Father's Day, dad of four Lance Lynn tied a franchise strikeout record and stopped a stretch of recent struggles. But he couldn’t enjoy any of it.

All the White Sox right-hander was focused on after the game on Sunday were the three runs he gave up in the series finale 5-1 loss to the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.

“My stuff was good today, but we lost,” Lynn said. “It doesn’t matter how many you strike out if you don’t win the game.”

It was a frustrating outcome on what should have been a celebratory day. Lynn struck out 16, tying the White Sox record first set by Jack Harshman on July 25, 1954. He not only topped his previous career high (12) but he also became the first Major League pitcher to strikeout 14-plus this season, his 16 K's the most since the Braves' Spencer Strider also struck out 16 on Sept. 1, 2022. Lynn induced 33 swing-and-misses, the most in the Majors this season and tied for the fourth-best mark in the pitch tracking era (since 2008).

He also pitched into the eighth inning on a day when manager Pedro Grifol was concerned about the bullpen. All that, and he still ended up with a loss, moving his record to 4-8.

“I can’t say enough about Lance today," Grifol said. "I mean, he was the No. 1 today. He was the No. 1 when we needed it. Man, he was good. On the offensive side we didn’t get anything going. You’ve gotta score runs for him.”

Lynn has been struggling this year. He entered Sunday with the second-worst ERA among all qualified pitchers (6.75), and had given up at least five runs in each of his previous three starts. Against Seattle, there was only one small blip on a near-perfect day.

Lynn didn’t allow a baserunner until the third inning, when Cal Raleigh led off with a single. After a couple of strikeouts, a walk to J.P. Crawford set up a two-run double from reigning AL Rookie of the Year Julio Rodríguez.

Lynn battled back and retired the next eight batters. And in doing so, he kept adding to the strikeout total, with at least two K’s in each inning. Lynn might have been the only one who wasn’t paying attention as the number of strikeouts kept ticking higher.

“You just want to pitch well, to be honest,” Lynn said. “You don’t really start thinking about records or anything, especially like a single-game situation. I didn’t even know how many I had.

“[Pitching coach Ethan Katz] at one point goes, ‘Hey, career high.’ I was like, ‘Of what?’”

Lynn tied the record with a strikeout of Mike Ford to end the seventh inning, his 113th pitch of the day. He came back out in the eighth inning with a chance to set a new franchise mark, but threw only one pitch as former teammate Kolten Wong led off with a bunt single.

At that point, reliever Reynoldo López entered out of the ‘pen. López got a couple of outs before walking the bases loaded and then giving up a three-run triple to Jarred Kelenic, putting the game out of reach.

As good as Lynn was, the Chicago hitters were ineffective against Seattle starter Bryce Miller. The White Sox only run came in the sixth, when Elvis Andrus hit a leadoff double and came home on an Andrew Benintendi single.

“It’s definitely frustrating for us as an offense, seeing Lance giving it his all," Jake Burger said. "He has their hitters off balance all day, and it’s disappointing we couldn’t score more runs for him."

The White Sox have now lost six of their past eight, dropping both road series at the Dodgers and Mariners. Chicago heads home for a six-game stand against Texas and Boston, hoping to turn its fortunes around.

“I have confidence in these guys,” Grifol said. “We’ve just got to continue to work. We’ve got to work. There’s no other remedy for that. We’ve got to get back to work.”