Lynch 'stays the course' with second scoreless outing

CHICAGO -- As Daniel Lynch battled with White Sox slugger José Abreu for 12 pitches in the first inning Tuesday night, the Royals lefty did everything he could to keep Abreu from doing damage.

Lynch threw well-executed fastballs on the corners and sliders in the zone. Abreu fouled them off. Lynch tried to get Abreu to chase sliders out of the zone. Abreu didn’t bite. Lynch mixed in a few curveballs to no avail, until Abreu made contact on an elevated fastball for a bloop single into right field.

Abreu had barely reached first base by the time Lynch was ready to face the next batter, determined to not let the long at-bat derail his focus.

It didn’t. Lynch got out of the inning unscathed -- striking Yasmani Grandal out on a slider in the seven-pitch at-bat -- and turned in six scoreless frames to lead the Royals to a 6-0 series-opening win over the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field, snapping their four-game losing streak while extending Chicago’s to eight games.

“That was a lot of work to get through,” manager Mike Matheny said of Lynch’s battle with Abreu. “But then you end up giving up a base hit on the back side of it, and he just stayed the course. Those are the kind of things that can derail a young pitcher, where all of a sudden, you feel the pressure of a lot of pitches in a row. He did a great job staying the course.”

“It felt long,” Lynch added. “That’s sometimes going to happen against top-tier hitters in the game. Any time I get to battle like that with those guys -- obviously, there’s the single, but that’s a good result, to me. … [It] set the tone.”

Facing cold and windy weather in Chicago, Lynch threw 98 pitches -- 66 of them for strikes -- en route to his second win of the season. He allowed just two hits and two walks while striking out seven, tying a career high, which he’s done three times.

The 25-year-old lefty has pitched 12 consecutive scoreless innings, dating back to his final inning in his first start, against the Cardinals on April 12. He’s one three-run home run (in that first start of the season) from having a 1.69 ERA; Lynch has held opponents scoreless in 14 of the 16 innings he’s thrown this season.

That’s the type of consistency the Royals are looking for with their young starters, knowing that it’s the next step toward success for the organization.

“We’ve talked a lot about his maturity,” Matheny said. “It’s amazing from a year ago, where he is right now. His demeanor, his rhythm, his repeatability -- and that’s really the thing that you see the most, he’s repeating mechanics that are letting him repeat inside of the zone and outside. Had everything today.”

“Everything” included Lynch’s fastball and slider, his two best pitches. He got six whiffs on 25 swings with his slider and had good command of his fastball all night -- flashing 96 mph -- especially elevating it.

Lynch relied heavily on those two pitches in his start last Wednesday, when he kept the Twins scoreless for five innings. He said afterward he’d like to mix in more of his arsenal to keep hitters off balance.

That’s exactly what he did Tuesday, with 17 changeups and three curveballs.

“I definitely utilized [the changeup] a lot more,” Lynch said. “That’s something I definitely think helped keep guys off the slider.”

Lynch gave the Royals’ offense enough time to catch a few lucky breaks as it fought out of its recent struggles at the plate. Kansas City worked 11 walks Tuesday night and found timely hits in the fourth and sixth innings.

Bobby Witt Jr.’s leadoff double in the sixth inning started the four-run rally that gave Lynch more than enough run support. The Royals' third baseman and MLB’s top prospect has plenty of experience facing Lynch from the alternate training site in 2020, and he readily acknowledges it’s much better to play behind the tall lefty than to face him.

Not only because of his weapons, but because of the way Lynch’s mind works -- using every experience to learn something and take the knowledge to his next outing.

That typically leads to the consistency Lynch has found now, albeit a small sample size in 2022.

“I just remember every time we battled against each other, he was trying to do a new thing, working on things, and we would always talk afterward,” Witt Jr. said. “That’s what he does. He always wants to learn from every outing. He just wants to build off it so he can be great in the future. That’s what he continued to do.”