Lance Lynn had struggled over his last three starts, but he bounced back with a strong performance in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 11-2 win against the San Diego Padres.
The right-hander allowed just two runs on five hits and collected three strikeouts in seven innings of work while minimizing his home run trouble. “The last two were ugly. There’s no other way to say it,” Lynn answered when asked if his start against the Padres was a step in the right direction.
“But offense did a great job giving me a lead, defense made great plays behind me, and the bullpen needed it. It was a good win all the way around.”
Lynn twice worked out of traffic, including with the bases loaded in the fourth inning. The 36-year-old was aided by Trent Grisham bunting into the first out of the frame and managed to limit the damage to one run.
“You get the bases loaded with no outs, but bunt out was kind of huge,” Lynn said. “That kind of did me a favor there and helped me reset. It kind of gave me a free out, then I was able to get some weak contact on fly balls.
“Made one mistake to Tatis, but when you’ve got the lead like that, you’re just trying to attack and make sure you don’t give up free baserunners.”
Lynn improved to 5-2 with a 4.60 ERA, 6.43 FIP and 1.26 WHIP in eight starts since being traded to the Dodgers. With three weeks remaining in the regular season, Lynn added that he didn’t feel pressured to have a good start because of upcoming playoff rotation decisions.
Lance Lynn focused on ‘relaxing’ & ‘making pitches’
Lynn went into his start against the Padres with a simple approach of making better pitches. “Just trying to make pitches. Not trying to do too much,” he explained.
“I got myself in trouble there in the fourth, and just kind of relaxed and tried to make pitches. I think I may have been overcooking some stuff, getting myself in trouble and giving up big innings.
“Tonight was just about relaxing and making pitches, and whatever happens, happens. As long as you’re concentrated on making pitches, everything else will take care of itself.”
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