Sox' Lynn hits IL, reveals belt-gate ailment

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The White Sox rotation is getting another tune-up, as Lance Lynn hits the 10-day injured list with right knee inflammation.

“Each start has been a little different,” Lynn said Tuesday, “but it’s one of those things where we probably could have kept going, but we didn’t want to risk putting something in jeopardy where I was going to be worrying about things coming down the stretch for the playoff push or in October.

The IL move is retroactive to Sunday, the day after Lynn’s worst start of the season: seven runs in five innings in a loss to the Cubs. The White Sox recalled infielder Danny Mendick from Triple-A Charlotte to fill the open roster spot.

White Sox manager Tony La Russa said he expects Lynn will only miss one start, characterizing the move as “precautionary.” Reynaldo Lopez is tentatively scheduled to start in Lynn’s place Saturday at Kansas City, but that could change if the White Sox need to use him out of the bullpen earlier in the week.

“He’s come up and done a great job since he’s been brought back up,” Lynn said of López, who threw five perfect innings against the Cubs on Friday. “You can’t be more happy for a guy who has been through the things (he has), and he’s showing what he’s capable of and how good of a pitcher he could be. Having a guy like that on our roster is really a positive. We’re able to use it right now.”

Lynn said he’s been playing through knee inflammation since his start in the Field of Dreams Game a few weeks ago. He’s dealt with the same ailment before in his career.

“Right now, it’s a little worse than I would like it to be,” Lynn said. “That’s why we’re going to shut it down for a start or so and make sure we catch up to it and make sure we are ready to go down the stretch.” 

When Lynn was ejected against the A’s a couple weeks ago, for throwing his belt at an umpire for a foreign-substance check, the right-hander said he was rushing to see the athletic trainers. He confirmed Tuesday that his knee was bothering him then. He was running in to get a knee brace.

“Hopefully we can use this time here to catch up with it,” Lynn said. “Schedule kind of works out to where I can try to get back, if not ahead (of it), at least somewhat even with it to where I can manage it start by start. Right now, it’s in a spot where it’s ahead of us.”

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