With one big swing of the bat, the Detroit Tigers finally solved Dylan Cease last weekend.
They’ll have to face their nemesis once again in the middle game of a three-game series in Chicago on Saturday afternoon.
The White Sox right-hander is 10-1 with a 2.09 ERA in 14 career starts against the Tigers. He has also recorded 96 strikeouts in 77 1/3 innings in those outings.
Cease didn’t get the loss on Sunday, but he allowed a grand slam to Akil Baddoo. Cease, who walked four and struck out eight, was removed after four innings and 102 pitches.
“My stuff was good, but I didn’t get in the zone enough,” Cease said. “I fell behind a lot. It wasn’t a good one. Falling behind and [issuing] walks, it’s hard to win baseball games that way.”
Prior to Baddoo’s swing, Cease had given up only 19 runs in his first 13 starts against Detroit — and just 14 earned runs.
“We were the beneficiaries of his tiring toward the end, throwing that many pitches in such a short period of time,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said.
Baddoo connected on a 97 mph fastball.
“It was actually a well-executed pitch,” Baddoo said. “I just put a good swing on it. I was expecting something up in the zone.”
Cease (3-3, 4.88 ERA) wasn’t even trying to throw a strike after getting ahead in the count 0-2.
“I was trying to go away, and I missed in,” Cease said. “I mean, more times than not, that location’s OK, but I’ll just, you know, tip my cap on that one; he got me.”
Michael Lorenzen (2-2, 3.50 ERA) will get the start for Detroit. He had a strong outing against the White Sox on May 27, allowing just two unearned runs and two hits and a walk in 6 2/3 innings.
Lorenzen set down the first 17 batters he faced but wound up with a no-decision when the bullpen failed to hold a 2-0 lead. Detroit eventually won the game 7-3.
“Just being a competitor, you want to stay out there,” said Lorenzen, who is 1-0 with a 2.79 ERA in seven career appearances (four starts) against the White Sox. “I wanted to go deeper, but when you have guys like we have in the back end of the bullpen coming behind you, you feel pretty comfortable.”
Lorenzen, a free agent pickup during the offseason, had a 7.07 ERA in April and a 1.95 ERA in May.
Chicago won the opener of the three-game series on Friday night, 3-0. The White Sox used five pitchers as the Tigers went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
Tim Anderson had multiple hits for the third time in five games against Detroit this season. He scored a run and drove in another.
Javier Baez had a pair of hits for the Tigers.
“We didn’t push anything across when we had multiple runners on in four of the nine innings, so that’s pretty frustrating,” Hinch said. “We needed a big hit or just advancing 90 (feet) and creating opportunities for ourselves. That eluded us.”
–Field Level Media
