White Sox’s Lance Lynn strikes out 16 vs. Mariners, ties single-game franchise record established in 1954

Lance Lynn tied the Chicago White Sox single-game franchise record for strikeouts on Sunday against the Seattle Mariners, punching out 16 batters over the course of seven innings, albeit in a losing effort (box score). Lynn’s 16-K performance is the most in Major League Baseball since Atlanta Braves right-hander Spencer Strider tallied 16 strikeouts against the Colorado Rockies last September.

Besides the strikeouts, Lynn’s final line also included three runs on four hits and two walks. He required 114 pitches, with 71 of those going for strikes. According to Statcast, he generated 33 swinging strikes. That included 11 on his cutter, as well as 11 combined on his four-seamer and sinker. It’s worth noting, if only to highlight the absurdity of Sunday’s performance, that Lynn’s two most whiff-happy starts this year had seen him coerce a combined 35 empty swings. 

The White Sox record had belonged to Jack Harshman for nearly 70 years. Harshman struck out 16 members of the Boston Red Sox on July 25, 1954. Prior to Lynn’s start on Sunday, the White Sox franchise had seen five other 15-strikeout games, including two apiece by Chris Sale and Ed Walsh, and one by Jim Scott. Walsh and Scott’s games were both in the early 1900s. 

Lynn, 36, entered Sunday in the midst of a disappointing season. Through his first 14 starts, he had compiled a 6.75 ERA (65 ERA+) and a 2.77 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His home-run rate, of 2.1 per nine innings, was the worst among the 66 qualified pitchers. 

CBS Sports recently identified Lynn as a potential deadline trade candidate. Here’s what we wrote at the time:

Another underperforming White Sox veteran. Lynn is in the final guaranteed season of his contract, with next year’s club option (worth $18 million) carrying an affordable $1 million buyout. More pressing than the matter of who picks up that bill is whether or not Lynn can regain his form. He has uncharacteristically surrendered a lot of home runs this season, a nasty development for someone whose game is predicated on hitting his spots. Curiously, many of his component measures, such as his exit velocity and strikeout and walk rates, are in line with his past marks. A team confident that Lynn’s performance will align with those measures, instead of his current topline numbers, could attempt to buy low on him as a veteran mid-rotation starter. 

The White Sox entered Sunday with a 31-41 record on the season, putting them in third place in the American League Central. Nevertheless, they trailed the division-leading Minnesota Twins by only 5 ½ games.