White Sox' Lance Lynn, Kendall Graveman fall on their swords for loss

Lance Lynn, Kendall Graveman fall on their swords for loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

It came down to one pitch for Lance Lynn.

"If you can get him through six innings you feel great," Len Kasper said on the White Sox radio network.

Lynn's final pitch in the sixth inning of his inaugural start with the White Sox was taken deep to right-center field by Kyle Tucker on a two-run home run to bring the Astros within one run in the sixth inning.

The White Sox, or Lynn, could not get through six innings. Instead, the veteran settled for 5.2 innings. He allowed three hits, one home run, two earned runs and four walks while striking out six batters with 96 pitches.

Lynn had the finish line in sight but fell 437 feet from it by way of Tucker's home run. Still, he performed a solid first outing. But Lynn wouldn't contend with that notion. He fell on his sword after the game, taking the blame for the White Sox' loss to the Astros, 6-3.

"I was able to make some pitches I was missing early on," Lynn said "I thought some pitches were close, but they were off. I was able to fine-tune it as I went and I made one big mistake on the last pitch.

"You don't go six innings, you don't do your job as a starter. I didn't do my job tonight and it cost us the game."

Lynn handed the ball off to Jimmy Lambert, who got out of the sixth-inning jam in four pitches. After him, Kendall Graveman came in and created a new situation. Graveman incurred the loss, allowing three earned runs in 0.2 innings.

Jake Diekman succeeded Graveman and allowed another earned run. The Astros scored six unanswered runs after the White Sox scored three straight to start the game. At one point, the Sox were in full control, having hit three doubles on three straight pitches.

After the game, like Lynn, Graveman followed suit by blaming himself.

"Shouldn't put Diek(man) in that situation," Graveman said to James Fegan. "You can't walk Maldy there. That's the game. Gotta be better than that. That game's on me, solely."

The White Sox started off the season with a bang. On Thursday, they defeated the Astros in their own stadium after they received their World Series rings and hung the 2022 championship banner.

They celebrated Pedro Grifol's first managerial win by stuffing him in a cart, wheeling him into the locker room showers and dousing him in shaving cream. The victory proved the opposite of the kind of performance last season's White Sox would have executed.

Unfortunately, they couldn't follow the same pattern on Friday. But there were plenty of positives to take away. Their bats were hot again, recording 11 hits. Tim Anderson, Yoán Moncada and Eloy Jiménez recorded multi-hit games.

There are still two games left in the series. And 160 more in the season. They're just getting started. And their insistence on accountability early on in the season is encouraging.

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