South Siders' win streak halted by Yanks' Lynn

CHICAGO -- A season-high four-game winning streak came to an end for the White Sox on Monday night courtesy of a 7-0 loss to the Yankees, who snapped a five-game losing skid, in the opener of a three-game series at Guaranteed Rate Field.
But it wasn't so much about things not done by the White Sox, who were coming off their first sweep of the season, over the Rays at Tropicana Field. It was a credit to Yankees starter Lance Lynn.
Lynn held the White Sox to two hits over 7 1/3 innings. That first hit came in the first when shortstop Didi Gregorius couldn't corral Daniel Palka's slow roller with two outs. It left the White Sox with runners on first and third, but Lynn struck out Avisaíl García. That strikeout marked the first of 19 straight retired by the right-hander until Nicky Delmonico singled opening the eighth.
"We weren't actually able to do a whole lot against Lynn today. He turned it up a notch," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. "Looked like his velocity was up a little bit, got him thru quite a bit of the game. We weren't ever really able to get anything going, connecting the dots to kind of give us some life."

Dylan Covey fell to 1-7 over his last nine starts, allowing four runs on seven hits over 6 1/3 innings. He struck out five, walked one and yielded two runs apiece in the fourth and the fifth. Gleyber Torres had two RBIs, with a single against Covey and a solo home run in the eighth against Thyago Vieira.
Covey carried a no-hitter into the fourth before a Gregorius double to right following a Stanton walk ended a stretch of 10 straight Yankees retired. It marked the third time in Covey's last six starts that he held the opponent hitless for the first three innings, but that also speaks to the right-hander's difficulty sustaining success as he faces hitters multiple times.
"It's something that I've had to think about a lot because I feel like the first time through a lineup is usually pretty quick for me," Covey said. "It's that second time through the lineup where I start relying on my secondary pitches, and today I just didn't have them going as early as I would have liked.
"My second time through the lineup was a little bumpy for me, but if I can just find those offspeed pitches earlier for strikes, I think it will make it a little bit easier to get through that lineup a second or third time."

Much like Renteria, Covey thought he threw the ball fairly decent regardless of the results.
"I felt good," Covey said. "Felt like I wasn't overthrowing anything. Everything was coming easily to me. Grinded through those fourth and fifth innings, didn't have the changeup quite as well as I wanted to. They were able to kind of sit on that fastball a little bit."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Engel saves a blowout -- temporarily: White Sox center fielder Adam Engel kept a 2-0 deficit in the fourth from becoming a 5-0 chasm when he took away a three-run homer from Greg Bird. Bird's blast to center had an exit velocity of 103.4 mph and carried 405 feet for a hit percentage of 86, according to Statcast™. But Engel raced back to the center-field wall and pulled the ball back with a leaping grab.
"Obviously a big play by Engy out there to save some runs, the pitch count," Covey said. "Just an awesome play to keep it close for us."
• Engel soars to rob Bird of homer

Davidson's mound work: For the third time this season, Matt Davidson pitched. The third baseman/designated hitter walked Gregorius with two outs in the ninth and gave up a single to Aaron Hicks, as they became the first two baserunners allowed by Davidson in three innings pitched. He also broke Brett Gardner's bat before retiring him on a grounder back to the mound and struck out Giancarlo Stanton while recording another scoreless frame.
"Not bad," said Yankees manager Aaron Boone of Davidson. "I mean, spinning that breaking ball up there, popping the low 90s, that's a little bit of an asset to have that. Preserved people, and he made it tough on our guys."
• Watch in awe as Davidson fans Stanton

According to STATS, Davidson joined Doug Dascenzo (5 IP over four appearances), Jim Morrison (3 2/3 IP over three appearances) and John Cangelosi (4 IP over three appearances) as the only position players to start their pitching careers with three or more scoreless innings since 1973. Davidson also became the first White Sox position player to make three appearances in one season since the inception of the designated hitter in '73.
"I'm enjoying it, it's fun. I've said before that really it was a passion of mine growing up. It's something that I did all the way through high school," Davidson said. "I don't know how many days we've had off recently, but [White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper] said, 'If this game gets a little bit more out of hand, we probably want to send you to the bullpen for these two days before the off-day.'
"We won four straight, we were using matchups a lot, and the guys were working hard in getting outs and getting big outs in those situations. It's cool to give them a break."

HE SAID IT
"That'd be cool. That'd be really cool." -- Davidson, on the thought of getting a save and hitting a home run in the same game
UP NEXT
Right-hander Reynaldo López (4-9, 4.57 ERA) is scheduled to make his first career start against the Yankees at 7:10 p.m. CT on Tuesday at Guaranteed Rate Field. CC Sabathia, who has a 19-6 career record against the White Sox, starts for the Yankees. Lopez is 1-2 with a 6.32 ERA over his last five home starts.