Cease remains undefeated against Tigers
DETROIT — Dylan Cease remained unbeaten in 10 career starts against Detroit and Yasmani Grandal hit a two-run homer that led the White Sox over the Tigers 5-2 Saturday.
Cease (1-0) allowed one run and two hits in five-plus innings with eight strikeouts and three walks. He is 9-0 against the Tigers.
“I don’t want to jinx myself, but the results have been good so far,” Cease said of his success against Detroit.
Cease went 6-1 in his final 11 starts of last season, and manager Tony La Russa sees a carryover.
“He was outstanding,” La Russa said. “They’ve got a nice club over there and he was just rock solid, in command of all of his pitches. When he got a little out of sync, he got right back on it. That’s what he started to do midseason on. He’s a quick learner.”
Cease’s take on his first start this season was a little bit different. He relied upon his slider more than usual.
“I feel like I was kind of a one-trick pony a little bit with the slider,” he said. “That was the pitch I had the best feel for. Sometimes, you have those games where you
just have to compete with what you’ve got.”
Aaron Bummer gave up singles to Miguel Cabrera and Jonathan Schoop starting the ninth, then struck out Eric Haase, Spencer Torkelson and pinch-hitter Dustin Garneau for his first save.
Chicago’s A.J. Pollock left because of right hamstring tightness after he singled leading off the third and took a wide turn at first. Pollock is
off to a 4-for-7 start since he was acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 1 for closer Craig Kimbrel.
Eloy Jimenez hit a two-run single with two outs in the first. Jose Abreu had two hits and scored twice for the White Sox, who rebounded from a 5-3 opening-day defeat.
Detroit’s Casey Mize (0-1) allowed four runs and seven hits in five-plus innings.
Grandal homered on a 1-1
fastball in the sixth, driving the ball over the right-field wall for a 4-0 lead.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch didn’t second-guess himself for allowing Mize to start the sixth.
“I think he earned it,” he said. “He was at 70-some pitches and other than the first inning he’d been able to navigate pretty efficiently. We need our starters to take on a lot of innings.”
Cease was replaced by Reynaldo Lopez after allowing Austin Meadows’ leadoff single in the sixth. Jeimer Candelario had an RBI double.
.Javier Baez was thrown out trying to score from third when a pitch glanced off Grandal’s glove, and the catcher threw to Lopez covering the plate.
“They work on that in spring training,” La Russa said. “That’s a key play in the inning. That did a lot to help us.”
Suzuki has 3 RBIs in rout of Brewers:
Seiya Suzuki drove in three runs for his first big league RBIs and the Cubs beat the Milwaukee Brewers 9-0 Saturday for a testy win during which five batters were hit by pitches and the benches cleared.
The teams exchanged words but no punches in the eighth after Andrew McCutchen was hit by a pitch from Cubs reliever Keegan Thompson, who was ejected for the first time in his career.
As McCutchen slowly headed to first base while looking at Thompson, players from both bullpens ran onto the field.
Three Cubs were hit by pitches. Ian Happ exited for a pinch-runner in the seventh after he was struck on the knee on a pitch by Trevor Gott. Brandon Woodruff hit Willson Contreras in the fourth and Nick Madrigal in the first. Contreras also was hit by a pitch in Thursday’s season opener.
Ethan Roberts made his major league debut in the ninth for Chicago and hit Christian Yelich with a pitch.
Suzuki, a Japanese outfielder who signed an $85 million, five-year contract as the Cubs’ biggest offseason acquisition, had a sacrifice fly, a bases-loaded walk and a single. Happ and Frank Schwindel added two hits apiece for the Cubs, who began a season 2-0 for the first time since 2016.
Justin Steele (1-0) struck out five in five scoreless innings for the rebuilding Cubs. The left-hander was 4-4 with a 4.26 ERA in his first major league season in 2021. Woodruff (0-1) struggled for the reigning NL Central champions. The right-hander allowed seven runs, six hits and three walks, striking out two in 3 innings for his shortest outing since Aug. 12, also against the Cubs.
Last season, Woodruff issued 43 walks in 179 innings, finishing 9-10 with a career-low 2.56 ERA.