DAMN, YANKEES!
Stinky Sonny, lazy Gleyber send Bombers of f to Boston in horrible style
Lance Lynn arrived Tuesday and pitched Wednesday for the Yankees. He had time for some basic, “how ya doing” chats and some handshakes. And then the veteran acquired from the Twins before the deadline went out and threw 4 ¹/3 scoreless innings of relief. It’s his way.
“My whole career is, when they tell me to go pitch, I go pitch,” Lynn said.
So he went and pitched with the same attitude he carries, no matter the situation.
“I try not to think of anything except getting whatever hitter in the box is out. If I do that, I’ll be fine,” said Lynn, who surrendered five hits, no walks and struck out five in his Yankees debut during the 7-5 loss to the Orioles at the Stadium.
“I know what I’m capable of and what I’ve done in the past,” said Lynn, who came over from Minnesota for infielder Tyler Austin and right-handed minor league pitcher Luis Rijo. “From here on, when my name’s called I’m going to go pitch whenever that may be.”
And in whatever role. Lynn last relieved in the regular season in 2012, although during playoff runs with the Cardinals he was used out of the bullpen. But given the struggles of Sonny Gray, Wednesday’s losing pitcher, Lynn could find himself in the rotation.
Manager Aaron Boone said simply, “That’s something we’ll talk about” in the upcoming days.
Lynn gave a preview of what he can offer.
“I felt all right,” said Lynn, who entered in the third inning, relieving the beleaguered Gray. “I was able to come in and give some innings.”
And not get charged with a run, although one of his inherited runners scored.
“I was just mixing it up,” Lynn said. “It was the first time I met everybody and we were just figuring it out on the fly how to use my pitches and go and everything worked well.”
After six seasons in St. Louis, Lynn, a free agent, didn’t sign until March, going to Minnesota on a one-year deal. He started slowly but grew better as the season progressed. When the Yankees acquired him, his numbers were 7-8 with a 5.10 ERA. The lack of a real spring training likely hurt.
“It probably didn’t help,” said Lynn, who will not be unavailable until at best Sunday after throwing 71 pitches. “But I don’t try to blame anything. I didn’t execute pitches early on.”
And now he faces another cram course situation of sorts.
“It’s new that’s for sure,” he said. “In spring training I was a late arrival there, so had a little experience. But not when games actually mattered. But we kind of worked together and everything started working pretty quick.
“You just want to come in and make a good impression and when all is said and done it’s a team game and today we did not come out where we wanted to.”