TORONTO – Walks aren’t part of Lance Lynn’s game, at least not usually.

The White Sox starter has made a career of pounding the strike zone, working deep into games, and keeping walks to a minimum. But, to start 2023, Lynn’s searching for strikes.

“He always competes, that's never off,” White Sox manager Pedro Grifol said before Monday’s 5-2 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. “But command of the strike zone, you know, he's had some walks that are uncharacteristic of his game.”

Last year, Lynn walked 19 batters in 21 starts. Through his first five outings of 2023, he's already up to 13 free passes, including three vs Toronto. The righty’s walk rate entering Monday sat at 9.8%, his highest mark since 2018.

Lynn’s first pitch sailed up and in, buzzing Bo Bichette back in the box for ball one. At first, Lynn reset himself on the mound, adjusting his cap and settling back on the rubber. Seven of his next 11 pitches found the zone as he worked through a clean first frame. The innings that followed weren’t quite as efficient.

"Walks got us today," Grifol said.

After pulling a heater to the outside corner of the zone in the second inning, Lynn stared toward the plate, hoping for a call to go his way. But home-plate umpire David Rackley deemed the pitch just wide and Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk took his free pass. On Monday, 59 of Lynn’s 101 pitches found the zone, bringing his season strike rate down to 62.7% (his lowest mark since 2018).

Lynn’s the ultimate competitor, Grifol said, never afraid to attack hitters in the zone. So the command struggles aren’t mental. The issue lies more in mechanics, the manager said, as the White Sox starter has spun out of his delivery early this year, failing to square up to home plate and drive his pitches into the zone. The result is an inconsistent release point and misses to both sides of the plate.

In Monday’s first few frames, the missed spots and walks didn’t end up costly. But Lynn’s flirtation with the big inning finally hurt him in the fourth. He sat down the first two batters, assisted by some home run robbery from Luis Robert Jr., but then a two-out walk started a slide.

Lynn was a pitch away from another scoreless inning before he lost a sinker away, walking Kirk on six pitches. After back-to-back hits extended the frame further, Lynn missed another spot against Cavan Biggio to hand Toronto the lead for good. Biggio caught a sweeper hanging in the zone, yanking it down the line and into the right field bleachers. 

"He got those two quick outs," Grifol said. “Two-out walks, they tend to hurt."

Lynn popped back out of the White Sox dugout for one more inning of work, putting a zero on the board in the fifth. But another cost of walks and long at-bats is a raised pitch count, and Lynn’s was up to 101 after five. He’s long been an innings eater, surpassing 200 innings three times in his career and leading the league in innings pitched in 2020. But he’s pitched six full innings just once this season.

Lynn has faced these command struggles before. He walked 154 batters across 2017 and '18 and led the league in wild pitches in '19. Grifol is confident his pitcher will smooth the mechanics, find the zone, and get back on track. According to Lynn, the solution is quite simple:

"Throw more strikes," he said.