White Sox 7, Tigers 5: Dylan Cease a winner in debut

White Sox win

Followed-from-work bullet-point recap:

*Dylan Cease’s first MLB start resulted in his first MLB win, a pleasant surprise considering how it started. After retiring the first two batters with just six pitches, he needed 27 pitches and six batters to find the third out. He loaded the bases with two walks and an HBP on 1-2 count, as his fastball command was high and wide. His curve was a better strike-throwing pitch, but Harold Castro got wise to it and delivered a two-run single on the second one he saw, putting Detroit up 2-0. Niko Goodrum earned Cease’s third walk of the inning to reload the bases, but John Hicks flied out to center to end the threat.

*After the initial scare, Cease settled down to last five innings, allowing only a wind-blown solo shot on a changeup to Jeimer Candelario in his final inning of work. Dividing his numbers:

  • First inning: 1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 0 K, 1 HBP
  • Rest: 4 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K, 1 HR

*The White Sox offense never let Daniel Norris settle in even with a couple of outs given to him. James McCann ran the White Sox out of an inning in the first, rounding third on infield single and getting caught far off the bag, taking some of the shine off his RBI double. An inning later,Ryan Cordell was cut down at home by 25 feet trailing Yolmer Sánchez home on Leury Garcia’s game-tying home run double in the second, which is two more outs than they can afford to lose against some teams.

*But the Sox kept coming, and took the lead for good in the fourth. Sánchez and Cordell were once again a part. Sánchez doubled Eloy Jiménez all the way home from first after a leadoff HBP, and Cordell cashed in Sánchez with a sac fly for a 4-2 lead.

*The Sox then pulled away in the sixth with Sánchez and Cordell doing the damage yet again. Norris started the inning with a pair of walks that ended his night, and both came around to score. Sánchez shot a single through a drawn-in right side to score Jon Jay, and Ryan Cordell executed a safety squeeze to make it a 6-3.

*McCann then contributed his second run-scoring hit with a single through the left side that scored Yoan Moncada.

*Kelvin Herrera turned the game into a save situation and forced Alex Colomé into the game unnecessarily. He started the inning with a leadoff walk, then gave up a two-out RBI double to Gordon Beckham to make it a 7-4 game. In came Colomé, who gave up an RBI double himself to the first batter he faced, but got Nicholas Castellanos to bounce out to end the game.

Record: 40-42 | Box score | Highlights

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