White Sox 14, Athletics 2: Holy, Offense

All eyes were on Dylan Cease pregame anticipating how he would follow up his near no-hitter performance. Entering the game, Cease was tied for American League’s 4th best WAR according to FanGraphs with a 3.8 total, but leading the AL with a 5.5 WAR on Baseball-Reference. That type of disparity will get nitpicked by baseball writers when making their Cy Young votes. But another outstanding performance in Oakland could sway more voters. 

Then Yoan Moncada and Elvis Andrus stole the spotlight. 

Moncada’s two home runs on his way to a five-hit night, plus the dingers from Andrus, Eloy Jimenez, and Romy Gonzalez powered the White Sox to a big blowout victory over the Athletics, 14-2.

Andrus wasted no time in the first inning bashing his 12th home run of the season (4th with the White Sox). A short moment later, Moncada smacked his 8th homer of 2022 to quickly make it a 2-0 lead. 

It didn’t get better for Sears in the second inning. Romy Gonzalez singled and made his way to third off Seby Zavala’s double. Facing Andrus again, Sears got a full count and threw a changeup away. Keeping his feet planted and swinging with his arms, Andrus lobbed a short fly to center field that safely landed for an RBI single. 

With runners on the corners, Sears tried to beat Moncada with an inside fastball. Unfortunately, Sears didn’t know the 2019 version of Moncada was playing tonight and watched that pitch sail over the left field wall for a three-run homer. Suddenly, the White Sox were up 6-0, and Moncada had two homers with four RBIs. 

Adding to the highlight reel, Andrus made a phenomenal defensive play in the third inning. Nick Allen hit a high chopper that went over Cease’s head. In one motion Andrus charged, barehanded the hop, and threw an accurate strike to Jose Abreu for the groundout. 

Sears only lasted two innings as he allowed six runs off eight hits. Athletics manager Mark Kotsay went to a second left-handed pitcher in Zach Logue.After a scoreless third inning, Logue ran into trouble trying to beat Jimenez on an inside fastball. Just like Andrus and Moncada, Jimenez did not miss smashing his 11th home run of the season. 

In the fifth inning, Romy Gonzalez picked up his third hit with a lead-off double and scored off Adam Engel’s single. With two outs, Moncada stepped up and crushed a line drive to center field. If the deep fly had five more feet to it, Moncada would have a three-home run game. Instead, he settled for an RBI double. Halfway through the game, the White Sox were up double digits. 

Gonzalez’s fourth hit was a towering home run, a three-run shot. 

Back to Cease. While he wasn’t as sharp as last time out against Minnesota, Cease made life tough for Oakland hitters. Leaning heavily on his slider like usual, Cease had eight strikeouts after five innings while allowing just three hits and two walks. What’s fascinating is Cease was throwing his slider harder (1.8 mph faster than season average) and was touching 99 mph with the four-seamer.  

With a two-touchdown lead, Cease went out for the sixth inning. Cease racked up another 1-2-3 inning in just eight pitches, adding a strikeout to his game total. At 95 pitches and with nine strikeouts, Cease’s night was over. Six scoreless innings lowered Cease’s season ERA to 2.06, and he now has 206 strikeouts, the third most in MLB. 

Game Notes

• Yoan Moncada has two five-hit games in 2022. From Chris Kamka, Moncada is the first White Sox hitter since Chris Singleton in 1999 with multiple five-hit games in a season. Moncada also becomes the first American League player ever to have multiple five-hit, five RBI games in a single season.
• Seby Zavala, Jose Abreu, and AJ Pollock also had multi-hit games. 
• Minnesota Twins beat the New York Yankees 4-3. With Cleveland having the night off, both the Twins and White Sox gain half a game in the standings. 

Record: 70-68 | Box Score | StatCast