Dylan Cease took the wildness out of a series. At least on one side.
The White Sox responded to a shutout with another double-digit outburst led by a two-homer game by Luis Robert, but unlike the Friday night, Cease and the White Sox pitching staff kept the Cubs' output to a minimum. He suffered just a solo homer of damage over six innings while striking out 11, giving the White Sox a welcome, peaceful conclusion to a tough 17-game stretch with a two-off-day week ahead.
Cease benefited from an early cushion. Robert hit a solo shot off Kyle Hendricks in the first, and Brian Goodwin flicked an opposite-field fly into the White Sox bullpen for two runs in the second. Goodwin's homer had an exit velocity of just 94.7 mph, suggesting the conditions could conspire against Cease if he weren't careful.
Cease didn't escape the afternoon without a cheap homer allowed. Frank Schwindel tagged him for a solo shot at 98.8 mph in the fourth, which was the only inning where Cease lost the thread. He threw 28 pitches and missed with six of seven at one point. Fortunately, Yasmani Grandal stole him a third strike on Austin Romine with two on and two outs, and Cease more or less found it for the rest of the day. He struck out the side after a leadoff double in the fifth, then struck out the first two in the sixth before Matt Duffy lined out for the final batter of Cease's start.
In between those last two innings, the Sox exploded for seven runs that iced the game, and all after two outs.
Hendricks only had a runner on second with two outs three batters into the bottom of the fifth inning, but he walked César Hernández on four pitches, then plunked Robert on the hip to load the bases. José Abreu followed by smoking a line drive to center that spun Rafael Ortega multiple times. With a better read, Abreu would've merely hit into a hard-luck out. With Ortega's dizzying display, Abreu hit a two-run ground-rule double, followed by an Eloy Jiménez opposite-field three-run homer. Suddenly and without warning, a 3-1 game became a 10-1 laugher.
The Sox tacked on two more with Robert's second homer of the game -- this one off Scott Effross, who was making his MLB debut. Goodwin joined Robert with three RBIs in the seventh with an RBI groundout after the Sox loaded the bases.
This time, the White Sox bullpen kept the Cubs out of the game. Ryan Tepera pitched a scoreless seventh, Michael Kopech worked around a "double" afforded by a goofy sliding catch attempt by Jiménez in left, and Liam Hendriks nailed down the furthest thing from a save by striking out two of the three batters he faced in the ninth.
Bullet points:
*White Sox pitchers struck out 15 Cubs against two walks overall.
*Abreu reached 100 RBIs for the sixth time in his career with the two-run double. It's not yet September.
*The White Sox won five of six from the Cubs this year, which is only the second time a crosstown series has been that lopsided.
