Gamethread: White Sox at Angels

Yermín Mercedes had a historic first career start and Andrew Vaughn didn’t commit an error in his first action in left field on Friday. Now, it’s time for Lance Lynn’s debut as a member of the Chicago White Sox at 8:07 p.m. CST.

Lynn arguably is the club’s second-best starting pitcher. He’s an innings-eater who is coming off back-to-back Top 10 finishes in Cy Young voting. The 33-year-old led the majors with 84 innings pitched last year, touting a 3.32 ERA (4.19 FIP), 1.060 WHIP and 89 strikeouts over 13 starts.

He ranked in the 47th percentile in hard-hit percentage (37.5%) last season, though, which could come into play after the Angels had 11 hard-hit balls in Dallas Keuchel’s four-inning start. Lynn throws his four-seam fastball 50.2% of the time, with a cutter (22.2%) and sinker (18.1%) making up the majority of his pitch mix, too. He sits in the low-to-mid 90’s.

For the Angels, Alex Cobb makes his debut. He struggled with the Baltimore Orioles last year, recording two quality starts to end the season to salvage a 4.30 ERA (4.87 FIP) over 52 ¹⁄₃ innings, which saw him give up eight home runs.

Cobb’s hard-hit percentage (48.2%) ranked in the 4th percentile and batters had an exit velocity of 91.3 mph, ranking in the 6th percentile. An even more optimistic view for White Sox hitters is Cobb owns a 13.89 career ERA and 0-3 record against the South Siders.

Here are the lineups:

Tony La Russa once again is mixing up the lineup, giving Yasmani Grandal his first day off in favor of Zack Collins. Andrew Vaughn also remains in left field and Leury García starts at second for Nick Madrigal.