TORONTO – In a smart move beyond his years, Dylan Cease made sure to throw all his worst pitches in the bullring before starting on Tuesday.
“The ball wasn’t doing what I wanted,” Cease said. “It made me kind of shut up, honestly, because I didn’t want to bring it into play.”
Once he really pitched, Cease counted all of his pitches in a 5-2 win over the Blue Jays at the Rogers Center. Faced with a famous Toronto lineup with hunger and stars, it coincided with the peak season with seven job entries, allowing only one run while passing seven on the way.
Cease’s things spoke for themselves. He flipped the curves of a rainbow art, including one that hit Bo Bichette, who had to lean on his bat to get his balance after the foul. He also snatched fast 90s balls above 98.3 mph, which gave juice to his trio of speed options. Of the 17 combined oscillations of joint curve, slider, and shift, 10 were whiffs (58.8% whiff rate).
“I was attacking with my fast ball well, getting in and out (really not letting it through the center) and then the speed was pretty solid too,” Cease said. “When I have that combination, it’s hard to hit.”
He added that the lower throws in the bullring did not concern him. The increase in adrenaline you feel in a large league mound can eliminate all pre-game problems.
No doubt this proves it this time around, as Cease withdrew the first 11 Blue Jays he saw. A solo shot from Corey Dickerson in the seventh inning was his only flaw, and only another Blue Jay advanced after first base against Cease.
Cease’s all-season ERA (3.92) isn’t much better than the league average, but he has excelled at limiting explosive outings: among his 26 starts, Cease has allowed three runs won or less. in 22 of them. As a 25-year-old, this kind of consistency is an encouraging sign for years to come.
“I think every time he goes out there he does something awesome,” said Tony La Russa, manager of the White Sox. “I [it] it gives us, on the one hand, optimism about the games it will launch this year. And for the future, too, boy, you have the opportunity to be very special. “
Cease enjoyed some initial support, which helped lead him to victory, in the form of a first four-run entry.
The White Sox started with two singles and a run at the home of Jose Abreu, who ran the 411 feet projected by Statcast for his eighth of the month.
They added to the total with a double RBI from Danny Mendick, the team’s sixth inning entry. The White Sox also saw 33 pitches under the well-known enemy José Berríos, which they saw three times last month while he was still with the twins. Although Chicago did not score more against Berríos, he scored three more times and chased after three innings.
The White Sox have faced Berríos four times this season, marking him with a 0-3 record and an ERA of 5.57. This is a deviation from the norm, as Berríos was 12-2 with an ERA of 2.65 against the White Sox coming in this year (17 starts).
When Berríos left, the White Sox continued to strike. His 18 hits coincided with the highest of the season, but they ran aground 12 runners at base and went out to third and home.
And yet, the Blue Jays had chances with the tie on the plate in both the eighth and ninth innings. The back of the Chicago bullpen has been a lot more shaky these days than usual, but Liam Hendriks struggled through a five-and-39 save to finish things off.
Hendriks won’t be available Wednesday night, of course, but that could give Craig Kimbrel (5.79 ERA in 10 outings with the White Sox) a chance to hit the boat.
“What is good is, by the way, as many releases as [Hendriks] threw, [if] we have a chance to save it tomorrow, we have Kimbrel, “La Russa said.” So we just went this far to win this match, and that’s what it does for us. “