Clueless

Dylan Cease needed 23 pitches to strike out the side in the first inning against the Red Sox last night, what with the two walks and all. Why, give that young man a two-run lead going into the third, and see what happens. Disaster, that’s what happened. Cease turned that lead into a five-run deficit before departing with two out in the third. The White Sox rallied to take an 8-7 lead into the eighth inning, but Craig Kimbrel turned that into a tie, and a story for another day. Then, going into extra innings, “genius” manager Tony La Russa tapped Mike Wright Jr. to relieve. Wright pitches to contact, as they like to say these days. And these days, extra innings start with a runner at second base. Boston 9, Chicago 8. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Cease showed himself to be as clueless as ever. He told reporters it was “one of those games that just happen every once in a while.” But “it’s not going to make me lose my confidence.” Oh, heaven forbid. Cease went on to say he has a "good idea of what I feel like I need to work on. [Cease on White Sox website].” Dylan, why wait? Wouldn’t it be better to have a good idea what you need to do when you’re actually in the game? As to this start being “just” one of those occasional hiccups, how do you explain your 4.22 ERA? It isn’t a product of two or three starts in April; you’ve pitched 151.1 innings on the season. That ERA tells me a lot more about you than anything coming out of your mouth. That Cease feels he can get away spouting this gibberish in public is a sign he doesn’t have coaches. But he sure has a boatload of enablers in his corner.