Lynn hangs tough with Sale on 'bad night'

ST. LOUIS -- There was no glamour for Lance Lynn on Tuesday night, no making history like his counterpart did, just another workmanlike outing from a guy whose walkout song proclaims that he belongs to the "blue collar crowd."

Lynn made his 14th start of the year for the Cardinals and dealt with plenty of frustration in an 11-inning, 2-1 St. Louis loss to the White Sox at Busch Stadium. But in his six innings of work, the 28-year-old righty kept the Cardinals deadlocked against one of the game's premier pitchers in Chicago's Chris Sale.

"When you're having what you would call a bad night and that's the end result, you'll take it," Lynn said of allowing just one run. It was his fourth consecutive outing of allowing two or fewer runs.

Lynn threw 117 pitches to get 18 outs, while Sale threw 116 to get 24 in his Major League-record-tying eighth straight game with 10 or more strikeouts.

Still, Lynn could only recall one hard-hit ball from the White Sox lineup. Long at-bats rife with foul balls, and some shaky defense, bore the responsibility for his lofty pitch count.

Sale notched his first career hit off Lynn to lead off the third before Adam Eaton fouled off seven pitches in a 13-pitch at-bat that ended with a potential double-play ball that second baseman Pete Kozma bobbled and threw to first for an out.

The next batter, Jose Abreu, hit a soft ground ball up the middle toward center that caromed off the bag and past Kozma for a run-scoring base hit.

"Plays would [have] helped," manager Mike Matheny said. "We make a double play and there is not a run up there. It happened early on, too, but fortunately, Lance worked his way out of that."

Due to an earlier Kozma miscue, Lynn also had to work out of a bases-loaded jam in the second, but a strikeout of Tyler Flowers, who later hit the game-deciding home run, and a 6-3 double play from shortstop Jhonny Peralta kept the White Sox off the board in that frame.

Video: CWS@STL: Peralta helps Lynn escape bases-loaded jam

After needing 13 pitches to get through the first, Lynn threw 71 over his next three.

"Those nights will happen," he said. "Some nights, the foul balls early in the count will be fly-ball outs or groundouts, but the ball was moving pretty good and they weren't able to square it up."

The only runner Lynn allowed over his final two innings came on a walk.

"He got better as he went," Matheny said. "Unfortunately, it took him a lot of pitches to get there and limited how far he could go."