Stroll-off win, Cease’s strong begin epitomize White Sox rebound

CHICAGO — The White Sox dug themselves right into a gap early into the season, to the tune of an 8-21 report in March/April. But the crew at all times believed it was higher than these early struggles indicated.

Now, the White Sox are lastly getting outcomes.

Luis Robert Jr. got here up clutch within the backside of the ninth inning to stroll off the Marlins, 2-1, at Guaranteed Rate Field on Friday, pushing Chicago to a 21-15 report since May 1.

“For any athlete, the best thing you can do is help your team to win a game, and to me, it was the most important thing,” Robert stated via interpreter Billy Russo. “Of course, it made me feel very good.”

With the sport tied, 1-1, within the ninth inning, Elvis Andrus singled to start out the inning and superior to second on a wild pitch. Tim Anderson promptly struck out earlier than the Marlins opted to deliberately stroll Andrew Benintendi. 

Then, Robert got here as much as the plate with an opportunity to play hero. The slugger was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts previous to that at-bat. But he put his earlier plate appearances behind him and turned on a slider to ship a single down the left-field line and stroll it off on the South Side. 

Robert’s game-winning hit capped off the crew’s sixth win in seven video games. 

“It’s a lot easier to be positive when you’re winning,” starter Dylan Cease stated. “Really, we’re just continuing to put in the work and following the process and staying even-keeled. When it wasn’t going our way, we were still putting in the work and the results weren’t going our way. Now we’re finally starting to see some more normal results.”

Robert’s clutch hit was nothing new for the slugging heart fielder. He has been a shiny spot for the White Sox offense all season and continues to be an enormous bat of their lineup. He’s slashing .265/.320/.517 with 14 house runs and 32 RBIs on the yr.

But what supervisor Pedro Grifol admires most about Robert is his potential to trace down balls simply in heart discipline. He did so on Friday with many flyouts that appeared routine, one thing he is been doing all season.

“Like I said, and I’ll repeat this over and over again, it doesn’t matter where we’re at or what venue we’re at, I think he’s the best center fielder in the game,” Grifol stated. “That’s just my opinion. I see him every night. I don’t see others every night. I see our guy every night and it’s hard for me to think there’s somebody out there that’s better.”

The walk-off win was solely doable because of Cease’s spectacular begin. 

After ending because the American League Cy Young runner-up final season, Cease has not carried out close to that degree in 2023. He gave up simply 45 earned runs via 32 begins final season. This yr, the right-hander allowed 35 earned runs throughout his first 13 begins. 

But on Friday, Cease confirmed glimpses of his Cy Young stuff. He gave up only one run on 4 hits with two walks and 7 strikeouts throughout six innings. It was his greatest begin since May 13, when he threw six shutout innings in opposition to the Astros. 

“Felt good,” Cease stated. “I don’t know if I’d say a bounce back, I think it’s just a good continuation of going in the right direction.”

Cease steamrolled Miami’s lineup via the primary 4 innings earlier than stepping into some bother within the fifth and sixth frames. 

He allowed a homer to Joey Wendle within the fifth on an inside slider, which was a house run in 17 of 30 ballparks. Then within the sixth, Cease had runners on second and third with one out however obtained out of it because of a pleasant play by Tim Anderson to get the lead runner, plus a popout. 

“Dylan did a great job today,” Grifol said. “He was phenomenal. Pounded the strike zone, and used all of his pitches. Had a really good game plan, him and [Yasmani Grandal]. [He] got in a little bit of trouble there in the sixth and pitched his way out of it. That’s what No. 1s do, right?”

The White Sox are actually trending in the precise route, they usually like their probabilities going ahead. On an evening by which their stars confirmed out, regardless of going up in opposition to the high pitching prospect in baseball, Chicago eked out a win.

“We’ve been on a good stretch lately,” Cease stated. “We’ve played really well in all facets of the game. When we play like that, we’re going to be very hard to beat.”