Lance Lynn’s mistake on a 3-0 pitch and Craig Kimbrel’s 0-2 wild pitch in the 8th doom the Chicago White Sox in 3rd straight loss: ‘It was stupid — there’s no other way to say it’

Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa declined to comment on a 3-0 Lance Lynn pitch that resulted in Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s RBI single in the sixth inning Monday against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Lynn filled in the blanks.

“It was stupid — there’s no other way to say it,” Lynn said. “I told Tony that when I got in (the dugout), that was all on me. I was trying to throw a ball, and it ran back over the plate.

“When you go back and look at it, it’s not in a terrible location, but you don’t throw a 3-0 strike. There was never any intention to throw a strike.”

The hit tied the game. The Blue Jays scored the go-ahead run in the eighth on an 0-2 wild pitch by reliever Craig Kimbrel and held on to beat the Sox 2-1 at Rogers Centre.

Lynn pitched seven strong innings, but he wanted one pitch back.

“I wanted to go up and away and be done with the at-bat and get on to the next guy,” Lynn said. “And I threw it right where he seemed to be looking for it. You definitely don’t want to do that there. It was not the idea, not the play, not what I was intending to do.”

The Sox dropped their third straight. They have played all three without star shortstop Tim Anderson, who has sore legs, according to La Russa.

“With Tim out for a couple games, we had to have guys step up,” left fielder Andrew Vaughn said. “We’re all out there doing our best, and just haven’t gone our way the last few games.”

Vaughn went 1-for-4 and knocked in Yoán Moncada with a single in the sixth to give the Sox a 1-0 lead. Guerrero tied it with the two-out single on the 3-0 pitch in the bottom of the inning.

“It’s one of those situations where it’s right out there in front and everyone can decide what the comment would be if I decide to comment, but I’m not going to comment,” La Russa said.

Lynn exited after seven, allowing one run on four hits with four strikeouts.

“When you look at the mistake I made, though, it was terrible,” Lynn said of his outing. “But all in all, (catcher) Seby (Zavala) and I had a good back and forth going, moving the ball in and out, changing some speeds. Everything felt pretty good.

“When you come back to it, if you don’t make a stupid mental mistake, you could be looking at seven innings of no runs. You still don’t know what’s going to happen after you walk the guy, but you can’t let Vladdy beat you there on a 3-0 pitch, no matter what.”

The Sox intentionally walked Guerrero in the eighth as the Blue Jays placed runners on the corners with two outs.

Kimbrel threw two strikes to Teoscar Hernández. The third pitch went to the backstop, and pinch runner Breyvic Valera scored to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in him,” Lynn said of Kimbrel. “Whenever you come to a new team in the middle of the season, you’re trying to just find your way. It’s been kind of a weird transition, coming over from the trade deadline. But you’re looking at it, he’s throwing the ball well.

“He’s had some weird things happen. And it’s just one of those things, once we get the things rolling that we need to get rolling and guys are getting into more of a flow of how things are going to be, everything’s going to run smoothly.”

The Sox will try to get clicking again offensively as well. After getting blanked 9-0 in Sunday’s series finale against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field, they were limited to the one run on five hits Monday. They went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

“We definitely had a lot of guys on base,” Vaughn said. “We got (Alek Manoah’s) pitch count up pretty early. He ended up going out for the sixth. We just couldn’t get them in as a team.

“You’ve got to flush today and get ready for (Tuesday). They’ve got a good guy going in (José) Berríos, and we’ve just got to go out there and take our best shot.”

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