The Daniel Lynch the Kansas City Royals hoped to see, the one their scouts and player development people gave a vote of confidence and whom publications such as Baseball America and the website MLBPipeline.com touted as one of the best pitching prospects in the game.
That guy showed up Sunday afternoon.
Lynch tossed eight scoreless to earn his first major-league win as the Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 6-1 and swept their three-game series in front of an announced 12,703 at Kauffman Stadium. The win extended the club’s streak to five in a row and gave them their second consecutive series sweep.
The 6-foot-6 left-hander held the Tigers to five hits, four singles. He struck out four and did not walk a batter in eight innings, the longest outing by a Royals starting pitcher this season.
Royals starters have now registered quality starts in four of their last five games with Mike Minor, Brad Keller and Kris Bubic all also getting in on that act.
Royals slugger Jorge Soler enjoyed his first two-homer game since August 8, 2020, and Salvador Perez hit a three-run homer for the second time in less than 24 hours. Soler now has four home runs in his last five games.
Lynch, recalled before the game as the Royals optioned reliever Tyler Zuber back to Triple-A, entered the day having stumbled hard in his initial foray in the majors earlier in the season. In those three previous starts, from May 3-13, he allowed 15 runs (14 earned runs) on 18 hits and five walks in eight innings.
The Royals felt inconsistencies in Lynch’s pitching delivery were giving opposing hitters clear indication which pitches were coming, and those hitters took full advantage of his tipped pitches. He’d worked to simplify his mechanics and become more consistent in the minors since his last appearance with the Royals.
In his last two starts for the Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers, Lynch allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits without giving up a walk in nine innings.
