Sox observations: Leury legendary, Lynn dominant

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Hits were not easy to come by for neither the White Sox, nor the Giants, as Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb each brought their best stuff Friday night. Runs were even more scarce. Heading into the ninth inning the two teams remained scoreless. But in the top half of the final frame, the White Sox got a little luck with an error, then a ball hitting a bag for a single to push a runner into scoring position. Leury García took advantage of the opportunity, and laced a single into right field for the game-winning run. García has had one of the worst offensive seasons of his career, but big hits like that are why he earned the name Legend. After that, Kendall Graveman went one, two, three for the save.

LANCE LYNN DELIVERS BEST START OF SEASON

Early on, it looked like Lynn was going to struggle against the Giants. In the first inning, he loaded the bases with a walk, a single and another walk, but managed to escape the jam without any runs crossing the plate. That must’ve ignited something inside Lynn, because from there he dominated. Between the first and fifth innings, Lynn retired 12 in a row. He allowed one more baserunner into scoring position, but never appeared to be in trouble. It was clear that Tony La Russa was going to let his workhorse empty the tank in the sixth inning, and Lynn did so emphatically. He struck out Mike Yastrzemski and let out a primal yell in celebration of his first scoreless outing of the year.

ALEX COBB DELIVERS BEST START, TOO

Even though Lance Lynn pitched a gem, Alex Cobb may have garnered more attention since he took a no-hitter into the fourth inning. Cobb was helped by some flashy defensive plays, but for the most part he had White Sox hitters pounding the ball down for harmless ground outs. José Abreu ended that run in the fourth inning with a single, and we’ll go into that more in a bit. After Abreu’s hit, Cobb’s spell was broken and the White Sox started to make strong contact against him. That chased Cobb out of the game, even though the Sox weren’t able to score against him, and even though he only threw 67 pitches. Regardless, Cobb finished with his first scoreless start of the season, too, and like Lynn he only gave up three hits.

JOSÉ ABREU HIT STREAK CONTINUES

No hitter was hotter than José Abreu coming into this weekend’s series. He’d hit safely in five-straight games, and had seven hits over the past two games. Over the month of June, Abreu became the first White Sox player with 30+ hits, 15+ runs, 15+ RBI and 15+ walks in a month since Paul Konerko in August 2010 (h/t to our stats guru Chris Kamka for that nugget).That incredible run seemed to be in jeopardy early, since Alex Cobb was dealing, but Abreu broke through with good ol’ fashioned hustle. In the fourth inning, Abreu chopped a ball to shortstop but managed to leg it out to break up Cobb’s no-hit bid. Abreu finished the night 1-3 with a walk and has now reached base safely 14 times over his last six games.

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