Dylan Cease gets a much needed strong start to help White Sox avoid winless tripon June 23, 2021 at 8:15 pm

PITTSBURGH — Right-hander Dylan Cease wasn’t much of a hitter, and he was a worse fielder.

His pitching, however, was good enough on a day the White Sox badly needed him.

Improving to 6-3 and lowering his ERA to 3.81, Cease pitched 5 ²/₃ innings of two-run ball in the Sox’ 4-3 win over the Pirates that prevented an 0-6 road trip. He allowed seven hits and one walk, struck out seven and got 17 swinging strikes.

One of the runs was unearned because of his own errors.

Protecting a 2-0 lead, Cease allowed a leadoff single to Michael Perez in the third, then mishandled a bad bunt by Pirates pitcher Chase De Jong and made a bad throw to first, making two errors on one play and putting runners on second and third.

Adam Frazier scored a run with a groundout and Ke’Bryan Hayes bounced a single over third baseman Yoan Moncada to make it 2-2. Cease would work out of first and third with one out that inning and escape a first and second with no outs in the fifth.

After going 3-for-3 with his first three career plate appearances against the Reds on May 4, Cease went 0-for-3 with a strikeout and a sharply hit double play grounder to first after showing a bunt.

Ryan Burr, who has retired 24 of the 28 batters he’s faced, finished Cease’s last inning, Aaron Bummer retired all five batters he faced and Liam Hendriks pitched a scoreless ninth for his 19th save.

Katz incredible!

Count Cease among those strongly approving of the Sox’ switch to Ethan Katz as pitching coach this season.

“He’s incredible,” Cease said.

That’s a lofty compliment.

“Well, look at the results he’s produced,” Cease said. “Look what he’s done with Lucas, look what he’s done with me. Carlos [Rodon] is on another planet right now. He’s a good coach.”

Giolito summoned Katz, his pitching coach in high school, as a source outside the organization after he struggled in 2018 and credited Katz with his turnaround. The Sox hired Katz after longtime pitching coach Don Cooper was not retained.

Star gazing

With Phase 1 of All-Star Game voting concluding Thursday, catcher Yasmani Grandal is second, and first baseman Jose Abreu and Yoan Moncada are third at their positions among American League vote getters. The top three at each position (top nine outfielders) in each league advance to the second phase of the voting, which determine the starters for the game at Coors Field in Denver.

Streaky Crochet

After recording 13 consecutive appearances without allowing an earned run, rookie left-hander Garrett Crochet has been scored on in his last three, taking a loss in Houston Friday and blowing a lead to the Pirates Tuesday.

The big hits in those two games were on sliders. All four batters he faced against the Pirates singled.

“It all starts with getting ahead and staying ahead in the count,” Crochet said. “[On Tuesday] I got behind to the first batter, next pitch single. And then when I was ahead, I wasn’t treating the count like I was ahead. Like the slider to [Erik] Gonzalez, I kind of babied it in there.”

It’s a good pitch in his arsenal, and Crochet said he needs to throw it with more conviction.

Crochet is being groomed to be a starter, something he wants badly.

“He’s feeling the immediate pressure of of coming in as a reliever there is nothing quite like being thrown in middle of key situation,” manager Tony La Russa said.

A first for Gonzalez

Left fielder Luis Gonzalez, called up after Adam Engel went back on the injured list Tuesday, doubled to left his first time up and scored.

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