Old-school

Dylan Cease turned into Dylan Cease last night, but, thankfully, just for an inning, long enough to give the Twins an early 3-0 lead. The White Sox came back, big time, to win going away by a score of 9-3. Cease was all over the place in the second inning, giving up a homerun and a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch, both on 1-2 counts. Then, you could almost see the switch flip, and that was it as Cease struck out seven in five innings. He left after 97 pitches in a tie game. Really, not 100 pitches and six innings? Why not? Instead, we get the bullpen parade, five pitchers strong, some good, some not. I’m not sure what this accomplishes outside of subjecting fans to a game that ran 3:23. Cease seems to be finding himself. I would’ve let him at least start the sixth. Who knows, he might have retired the side on three pitches. According to James Fegan in today’s The Athletic, Cease has improved his mechanics in part by using a core velocity belt in the offseason. I think Buster Crabbe wore one of those playing Flash Gordon.