Cease sharp; 'more in the tank' for playoffs

CHICAGO -- Dylan Cease’s next start will come for the White Sox in either Game 3 or Game 4 of their American League Division Series at home against Houston, after he struck out five in four innings during his final regular-season outing Sunday, a 5-2 loss to Detroit at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Cease seemed in line for a 2020 playoff start, as the right-hander was No. 3 in the rotation behind Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel for the entirety of the abbreviated campaign. But being passed over for Dane Dunning in the deciding Game 3 of a Wild Card Game loss to the A’s wasn’t what pushed Cease toward his marked improvement in ’21.

“It was one of those things where I didn’t really feel like I earned it. It wasn’t like I was upset about it,” Cease told MLB.com prior to his team-leading 32nd start. “It was one of those where I was like, ‘Let’s assess what needs to be changed and work on it.' Even if I had gotten the start, I still wouldn’t have been happy with the season.”

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Consistent command was lacking for Cease, who walked 34 in 58 1/3 innings in ’20. He also had a fastball that cut and didn’t ride. But Cease’s fastball has played better this season, his offspeed is being thrown for strikes and he has another year of experience.

Sunday’s five strikeouts raised Cease’s total to 226 in 165 2/3 innings, leaving him third in the AL behind Toronto's Robbie Ray (248) and New York's Gerrit Cole (243). Cease also is tied with Chris Sale (2013) for the eighth-most strikeouts in a single season in White Sox history.

Despite Cease having 26 career starts prior to this season, breaking with the team out of Spring Training for the first time made a difference in his learning process.

“I’ve had kind of the whole year to have some success, fail, learn from that, have a little success, fail. It’s definitely been important for my development, especially when I now had a targeted thing I was working on this season,” he said. “The first two were just coming up and trying to execute pitches.

“Now it was, ‘OK, the first two, this is what happened, so how are we going to fix that and build on it?’ We had the first two to go off of, and then we were able to make the adjustments for this one.”

Detroit scored three in the ninth off Reynaldo López to claim the regular-season finale. The game also featured Luis Robert Jr.’s Statcast-projected 430-foot home run off Tyler Alexander in the first inning, with a 117.7 mph exit velocity, the hardest-hit homer in club history in the Statcast era (2015-present).

López has a strong chance to be part of the White Sox playoff roster, as they get ready to open action Thursday in Houston. Ryan Tepera, who struck out two in one scoreless inning Sunday, will be counted on for late-innings work, and Michael Kopech, who was stretched out again to three innings and 51 pitches with six strikeouts, provides an important X-factor in relief for the White Sox.

A six-game winning streak came to an end Sunday, but White Sox manager Tony La Russa still took the time to congratulate his group for capturing its first division crown since 2008. The players have an off-day Monday, unless they want to get extra work, per La Russa, and will return for a workout at Guaranteed Rate Field on Tuesday before flying to Houston.

“There’s a lot of comments, ‘You’ve got to win it all,’ and we’ve got to do our very best,” La Russa said. “But don’t let anybody diminish what we did for six months. It’s really an important thing.”

Pitching in the playoffs gives Cease a chance to build off what he started during the regular season. And the 25-year-old, who finished with a 13-7 record and 3.91 ERA, believes there’s another step forward to be taken.

“Really, I’m not going to treat it like it’s any different,” Cease said, of his looming playoff start. “Prepare for it and then come out and believe in myself and see where it takes me.

“It’s been a positive season for sure. It’s night-and-day different from last season. But at the end of the day, I really feel like I have a lot more in the tank in what I can do."