Notes: Keuchel cruises, gives C high marks

In his second 2021 Cactus League start, Dallas Keuchel was scheduled to throw four innings and somewhere around 65 pitches.

Keuchel ended up covering those four innings in only 41 pitches during the White Sox 3-1 victory over the Cubs on Tuesday in Mesa, Ariz. The veteran southpaw allowed one hit and fanned three without allowing a run.

“It's one of those things where you've kind of just got to keep rolling with the flow,” Keuchel said. “Last start I had to get the inning pretty much turned over twice. I'd much rather get my pitches in the actual game, but you always like to have some sort of success. It's kind of a double-edged sword.

“Do I take the innings and take the command I had today, or do I take giving up a couple runs and getting deeper into some counts, just to get my pitch count up? It's kind of take your pick. I'd like to have some success, so this was a nice turnover from five days ago.”

That first start against the Royals saw Keuchel lifted in the first inning after giving up four runs before re-entering to start the second and pitching 2 1/3 innings. He escaped the first inning against the Cubs despite Ian Happ’s leadoff single and Willson Contreras reaching on Yoán Moncada’s fielding error, inducing a Kris Bryant double play to end the inning.

“It was a little bit better command early in the count, and that's really the most important thing right now, and that's really what I was focusing on in between,” Keuchel said. “I was fortunate to keep getting some early weak contact and settled in nicely.

“I was able to get some early breaking balls in there for strikes. Some of them weren't competitive. I was kind of wishy-washy, which kind of made me mad at certain points, but I had really good command of everything else. Changeup was really nice today. It was just a nice addition to the two-seam and played nicely off the cutter inside. I'll take that all day and hope to build off some of those breaking balls.”

Before taking the mound in the second game of the regular season against the Angels, Keuchel will finish Spring Training on Sunday against the D-backs.

“Endurance-wise I felt a lot better today. I didn’t really taper off like I did five days ago, so that’s a check off at the bottom,” Keuchel said. “I’ll continue some of my cardio in between starts, that’s what pushes me towards more endurance. I want to go six, seven, eight innings a pop.

“But, really, it’s about fine-tuning that offspeed and maybe making that 0-0 breaking ball and transforming that to another strike-to-ball pitch. That’s really the only one thing lacking from today was quality of strike to ball when I was ahead in the count.”

Lucroy gets vote of support
Keuchel threw to Jonathan Lucroy for the first time in a game and had very high marks for the veteran catcher.

“He has transitioned into one of the best receivers I’ve had the last four or five years,” Keuchel said. “So that is a testament to his work ethic. I feel really, really confident with him behind the plate. I like all our catchers. I think we have great options.”

Third to first
• Codi Heuer yielded a leadoff triple to Nico Hoerner in the eighth inning but then struck out the side. He has 13 strikeouts without a walk over eight scoreless innings.

• Moncada’s double in the second extended his stretch of reaching base safely to 14 straight games.

• The White Sox have a 7-2-2 record over their last 11 games.

• Mark Buehrle celebrated his 42nd birthday Tuesday. Buehrle won 161 games over 12 seasons with the White Sox and won in double-digits, made at least 30 starts and threw at least 200 innings in all 11 years as a starter in Chicago.

• José Ruiz, competing for the eighth and final spot in the White Sox bullpen, struck out one during a scoreless ninth to record the save Tuesday.

He said it
“Baseball is a business. Not many of us want to say that, but it is, though it's a game we played as children growing up. There's a business side of it, and I understand that from the club's perspective. But it definitely gave me a lot more motivation. That doubt, when people doubt you, that's fine. And maybe that's not what they were thinking, but for me, that was the motivation I had.” -- Carlos Rodón, the team’s fifth starter, on being motivated by the White Sox offseason non-tender