Lynn and bear it: White Sox’ Cy Young candidate roughed up by Cubs

The White Sox didn’t see that coming.

Certainly not from Lance Lynn, who, by his own admission, was slapped in the face.

“First time he’s had that kind of game,” Sox manager Tony La Russa said of the veteran who is arguably the ace of his staff but gave up three homers and seven runs in a 7-0 loss to the Cubs on Saturday at Guaranteed Rate Field. “It happens. They pitched better, hit better, managed better. It wasn’t much of a contest.”

A Sox lineup that overcame a 6-0 deficit the night before by scoring 17 runs against the Cubs were held to four hits by Alec Mills over 8„ innings before former Sox Codi Heuer got the last two outs.

The Cubs put a blemish on Lynn’s Cy Young résumé, dropping his record to 10-4 and raising his ERA from 2.20 to 2.59. Four runs came on a grand slam by Rafael Ortega and two on solo homers by Patrick Wisdom, his third and fourth of the series.

Lynn struck out seven and walked two, a free pass to No. 9 batter Sergio Alcantara before serving up an 0-2 pitch to Ortega for the slam in a five-run fourth.

“Every once in a while, you need a slap in the face to get yourself going,” Lynn said. “I gave up seven runs. It doesn’t matter who you are facing. Just a [crappy] night on my part.”

Yoan Moncada had two hits and extended his hitting streak to 14 games, a career high. That was the only highlight for the Sox, who are 4-1 against the Cubs this season with one to go Sunday.

“It’s not good to suck. So you learn to don’t let it happen again, because then it makes for a miserable couple weeks,” Lynn said. “So get myself ready to go for the next one and make sure I don’t suck again. That’s the plan.”

Robert’s gold

Center fielder Luis Robert received his 2020 AL Gold Glove Award trophy on the field before the game. Robert did not start on what was a planned day off.

Robert is batting .375 with three homers, five doubles, three homers and 10 RBI in 15 games since being reinstated from the injured list Aug. 9.

Historic relief

In the Sox’ 17-13 win over the Cubs on Friday, Reynaldo Lopez was the first Sox reliever to throw five-plus perfect innings in a game since Eddie Cicotte in 1917 against Cleveland. Lopez also became the second pitcher in the modern era (since 1900) to throw five-plus perfect innings of relief with seven or more strikeouts, joining Jake Westbrook of the Indians on April 19, 2004, against the Tigers.

Grandal at DH

La Russa knew that Yasmani Grandal wouldn’t catch Saturday after returning from the IL on Friday, but he wasn’t sure Grandal would be OK to be the designated hitter until he arrived at the park. Grandal will catch the series finale Sunday.

On Friday, Grandal became the first catcher and 13th player since 1920 to record at least two eight-plus RBI games in his career, per STATS.

The eight RBI tied the single-game franchise record, and Grandal was the fifth Sox player to accomplish the feat (sixth time) and first since Robin Ventura on Sept. 4, 1995 at Texas.