you never know

On paper, based on practically all the relevant stats, this should not have happened. Lance Lynn and the Chicago White Sox should not have beaten Spencer Strider and the Atlanta Braves. But it happened on Saturday night at Truist Park in Atlanta. Over the course of 162 games, games like this do happen, which is one of the joys of baseball. The White Sox, 38-55 after a 9-0 loss on Friday, beat the Braves (61-29, best record in MLB) in a roller coaster affair, 6-5. Former Ole Miss star Lynn, 5-8 with a 6.03 ERA going in, got the win against All-Star Strider, 11-2 with a 3.44. Both threw 97 pitches in the Georgia swelter, and neither was particularly sharp. Ex-Mississippi State standout Kendall Graveman got the save, his eighth as the fill-in closer, but not before giving up a home run to Ronald Acuna leading off the ninth that made it a one-run game. Graveman gave up two more hits before getting a ground ball up the middle that East Central Community College product Tim Anderson, who has had his issues at shortstop, turned into a nifty 6-3 double play to end the game. Lynn worked 5 1/3 innings, yielding six hits, three walks and four runs. He gave up two homers; his season total of 24 is the highest in baseball. He struck out six and has 133 on the year, ranking sixth in MLB. The last run Lynn allowed came on a fifth-inning single by DeSoto Central High alum Austin Riley that tied the score 4-4. Strider, who fanned 10 on Saturday, leads MLB in that category with 176. But he allowed eight hits — several on two-strike pitches — and five runs over six innings. The ChiSox took the lead for the third and final time on a two-out, two-strike homer by Jake Burger off Strider in the sixth. Strider has allowed 14 homers. The teams go at it again today. On paper, the Braves should win. But as Saturday showed, you never know. P.S. Ex-DeSoto Central star Blaze Jordan’s first Double-A homer was a big one. His two-run ninth-inning blast gave Portland a 3-2 win at Reading in the Eastern League contest. Jordan was promoted Friday from High-Class A Greenville in the Boston system. … Minnesota recalled former Southern Miss slugger Matt Wallner from Triple-A on Saturday; he did not play in the Twins’ 10-7 win vs. Oakland. Wallner, who made his MLB debut in 2022, was 7-for-19 with a homer and four RBIs in two previous stints this season with the Twins.