Dylan Cease's night was as long as it was short.
He gave up a homer on the first pitch of the game, and when he lost a seven-pitch battle to Trevor Story for a three-run homer before the close of the inning, the Red Sox had all the runs they needed.
Cease gave up seven runs on eight hits and two walks over three innings in his worst start in quite some time, and neither José Ruiz, Bennett Sousa nor Matt Foster could stop the bleeding. Boston posted 16 runs by the game's halfway point, and while Vince Velasquez stepped up to provide three scoreless, hitless innings in his White Sox relief debut, it was hard to tell whether he was responsible, or if the Red Sox were just ready to go home.
Likewise, the White Sox either needed one time through the order to get a read on Nick Pivetta, or the Red Sox's 10-0 lead caused apathy to set in. Tim Anderson had two more hits to raise his average to .365, and José Abreu continued his upswing with a two-run homer that at least put the White Sox on the board, but those two and Andrew Vaughn were responsible for all six Chicago hits, with the rest of the lineup going 0-for-23.
Really, after Cease's short start, there were only two real surprises:
No. 1: Jake Burger made his debut at second.
On the roster thanks to Luis Robert heading to the COVID-19 list, Burger came off the bench to get his first MLB reps at second base. Unfortunately, he was not tested, as everything in the infield stayed to the left side.
No. 2: A position player did not pitch.
I kinda figured Leury García might get the nod, but once Anderson left the game with García taking his place, the White Sox didn't have another shortstop to fill in. Then again, Burger was playing second, so anybody really could've handled the position without damaging the game's credibility.
