In this offensive environment, three runs feels like six.
When Dylan Cease is pitching like this, three runs feels like 30.
Whether you've been watching Cease for a day or a decade, you've never seen him better. He spearheaded a shutout with seven scoreless innings, over which he struck out 11 while just allowing a double and a HBP. Both baserunners reached to start innings, but neither advanced past second.
Cease overpowered the Angels with a fastball-first approach, but not necessarily first fastballs. He got only 11 swinging strikes on 93 pitches, but the sequencing stumped the Anaheim lineup for 20 called strikes.
My favorite sequence was this three-pitch strikeout of Andrew Velazquez in the third inning:
Two curves taken for strikes in impossible locations, and then a high fastball in a perfect spot.
Cease also struck out Mike Trout all three times they met, and Liam Hendriks finished the job with one of his own. A day after Trout reached base all five times against Dallas Keuchel and Co., the White Sox's two best strikeout pitchers slapped a golden sombrero on him.
Cease had 10 strikeouts through five innings before only fanning one hitter over his last two innings. His breaking stuff showed a little bit of the dulling that he encountered in the middle innings against the Royals his last time out, but at least his misses were off the plate, and the outs remained routine.
Hendriks looked reinvigorated as well, striking out the side on 12 pitches. He, Kendall Graveman and Cease combined for 15 strikeouts and zero walks over nine innings, and it all made a so-so performance by the White Sox offense play up.
The Sox picked up where they left off against Michael Lorenzen in the ninth inning on Sunday, jumping on Patrick Sandoval for his first two earned runs of the season. Tim Anderson and Luis Robert led off with singles, and a Jo Adell bobble allowed them to advance 90 feet on the second of those base hits. Two productive outs brought them home, and the White Sox led 2-0.
The spigot dried to a trickle afterward, as Sandoval did a better job of missing barrels. Fortunately the Sox were able to cash in one more run to take the game out of bloop-and-a-blast range. José Abreu started the sixth with a single through the left side, and just when it looked like he'd be stranded there, Adam Engel smashed a double inside third base with two outs. The ball checked up along the side wall, with Adell taking a very cautious route to corraling it, and the extra steps allowed Abreu to score all the way from first on a successful send by Joe McEwing.
The Angels didn't bring the tying run to the plate afterward. In fact, they never had two baserunners in an inning. The White Sox know what that looks like, and it's better to watch it than to live it.
Bullet points:
*Cease finished with a game score of 86, topping his previous best of 80 back in his seven-inning shutout of the Tigers back in April 2021.
*The Angels hadn't been shut out all season, but the Sox managed to do it twice to them in four games.
*Robert went 3-for-4 from the second spot.
