Dylan Cease was facing his most difficult challenge since joining the big leagues. The Houston Astros entered the day second in BB% paired with the lowest K% rate in baseball. With the fifth-lowest swing rate, the Astros hitters don’t often chase pitches out of the zone. When pitches are in the strike zone, no other team does a better job of making contact. Cease needed to get ahead of Astros hitters to prevent the big innings from happening.
On the very first pitch, George Springer greeted Cease with a solo home run. Jose Altuve also hit a solo home run, but the Astros had difficulty generating more damage against Cease until Welington Castillo forgot how to field his position.
and he's ... safe? lmao #WhiteSox pic.twitter.com/4DdkARFdx8
— ͏k͏y͏l͏e (@kyleconqueso) August 13, 2019
It wouldn’t get better for Castillo behind the plate. After Cease walked Jake Marisnick, Renteria called for Kelvin Herrera in relief who did produce two quick outs. Then after intentionally walking Michael Brantley with Marisnick stealing second base, Herrera would also walk Correa to load the bases for Alvarez.
Another pitching change, this time to Jace Fry, and Castillo suffered another passed ball. On a high fastball, Castillo just simply missed the pitch as it deflected off umpire Todd Tichenor’s shoulder and allowed Marisnick to score. That run counted against Cease but it wasn’t earned, and his final line was 6 IP 5 H 4 R 2 ER 5 BB 2 K 2 HR on 98 pitches. Even though the walks were more you would like to see, Cease did produce 10 grounders, and the only two fly balls allowed left the yard.
Castillo’s woes behind home plate continued as he was charged with a third passed ball and a “Wild Pitch” that should have been ruled as another passed ball. Houston did tack on two more runs to make it 6-2, and that was enough as Greinke and the Astros bullpen shut down the White Sox offense retiring the last 13 hitters faced.
Record: 52-65 | Box Score | Highlights
