CHICAGO -- Four solo home runs plus a Lance Lynn quality start and three innings of stingy bullpen work from three relievers led to a 4-1 White Sox victory over Detroit during Thursday’s series opener of a four-game set in Chicago.

The White Sox (34-22) raised their lead in the American League Central to three games over an idle Cleveland squad. They also improved to 12-1 in their last 13 games against Detroit and 24-8 against the Tigers since 2019. This victory represented No. 2,762 in manager Tony La Russa’s career, moving him one win away from tying John McGraw for second place all-time.

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It was a season-high fifth straight victory at home for the South Siders, raising their record to 21-9 this season at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Lynn once again set the tone by allowing one run over six innings, striking out six and walking two. How good has he been this year? His ERA actually went up to 1.23. The lone run scored against Lynn came via Willi Castro’s home run leading off the fifth, but even after exiting at 89 pitches when he started to stiffen up at the end, he was still able to improve to 7-1 overall with a 6-0 mark and 1.38 ERA over his last seven starts.

“I threw the ball well,” Lynn said. “They were trying to get after some things. I was able to mix some things in that I haven't had to up to this point in this year. And they were where they needed to be, and I was able to get outs with them, swings and misses at them.

“When you look back at it, you look at probably one bad pitch on a pitch he just got to. It was right down and in to a lefty that was able to make a good swing on it. Physically, I felt pretty good. I got a little tight there at the end, and I was at 90 pitches or close to it, so we decided to shut it down. Got looked at, everything's good, good to go. So no worries there."

Catcher Yasmani Grandal, who hit one of those four solo home runs, was asked what Lynn has brought to the White Sox that might have been missing in 2020. Grandal answered with one word: Intent. But when asked for a detailed response for the layman, Grandal went into greater detail about his batterymate’s value.

“He knows exactly what he wants to do, and he wants to attack guys and attack the strike zone and make these guys swing,” Grandal said. “He’s going to give you the best he’s got, whether he wins or loses. He’s still going to come at you, like I said. He wants to be in there as long as possible.”

“You try to take the ball every five days and go as long as you can and help the team,” Lynn said. “When you leave, you gave [the team] a chance to win that day. That's always been my motto since, heck, as long as I can remember, even back when I was a little kid: Do everything you can and leave it all out there and help your team that day.”

Yoán Moncada launched the first homer off Casey Mize (3-4), going the opposite way with two outs in the first. Jake Lamb added another long drive in the second, followed by Grandal’s seventh-inning home run and capped off by Tim Anderson in the eighth. Grandal’s blast traveled a projected 457 feet, per Statcast, winning the distance battle for the night. It was also Grandal’s longest career home run in the Statcast era (since 2015).

“I’m glad I got something up in the air,” Grandal said. “You can see what happens when I do that.”

Aaron Bummer, Evan Marshall and closer Liam Hendriks (14th save) allowed one hit combined and struck out two apiece. The White Sox appear to be getting their high-leverage relievers in order as the season progresses, making a solid team even tougher.

“We knew we were going to have a lot of talent in the bullpen,” Grandal said. “But there’s also a lot of young guys down there still trying to find themselves and find who they are as a reliever and as a Major League baseball player.

“They are starting to come along. They are starting to see what it takes to be up here, and they are starting to get more confident and know they have the stuff to get outs up here.”