CHICAGO -- Dylan Cease has thrown 16 innings through three big league starts heading into start No. 4, on Friday night against the Twins at Guaranteed Rate Field (MLB.TV, 7:10 p.m. CT). He would like to subtract one bad inning from each of those starts to help lower his 6.19 ERA and allow him to last longer in games.

With that not an option, Cease believes he's found a solution to the "big inning" issue since yielding four runs in the second inning on Sunday against the Rays, all of them on Travis d’Arnaud's grand slam.

“I was getting super rotational with my front side,” Cease said, “so I’m just working on ... having better direction with my front side. I threw the best side [session] of the year yesterday, so we’ll see.”

During that top-notch session, Cease's carry, spin rate and efficiency all were up.

“The high-speed camera had me behind the ball instead of coming around it, like I had been in the past,” he said. “Then it was one of those where it felt good. All that came together.”

Statistics don’t particularly matter for MLB Pipeline's No. 16 overall prospect, part of a team in Year 3 of a rebuild and not playoff-bound. It’s more of a learning experience for the 23-year-old, but that won’t preclude him from wanting to do well.

“If I don’t execute and perform, and if I don’t feel like I’m dominating, I feel like I need to figure out a way to do that or I’m kind of wasting my ability and my time here,” he said. “But it’s been an incredible experience, learning and getting my feet wet a little bit and figuring out how to win at the big league level.

“I’m more worried about how the ball is coming out of my hand and how I’m executing pitches. It’s one bad inning in every start. The rest has been solid. So if I just eliminate that one inning, I’m going deeper in the game and having better results. I want to not waste 40 pitches in one inning, 30 pitches in one inning. Have better fastball command.”

Renteria provides injury updates

After knocking out three hits in his first rehab game with Triple-A Charlotte on Wednesday, shortstop Tim Anderson, out with a high right ankle sprain, finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs leading off and playing shortstop for the Knights on Thursday.

“Physically felt OK,” said manager Rick Renteria prior to Thursday's game. “His secondary [leads], he was feeling a little tentative. We'll see how he feels today, and we'll continue to get those reports and hopefully he's doing well. Get those at-bats under his belt and get him out on the field and doing what he does.”

Renteria hopes that outfielder Eloy Jiménez (right ulnar nerve contusion) won’t require a rehab assignment. Meanwhile, right-hander Kelvin Herrera, out with a strained right oblique, threw a side session on Thursday and is doing well, per Renteria. Left-hander Manny Banuelos, who is dealing with inflammation in his left shoulder, is in Arizona and set to throw two innings in a simulated game on Friday.

Nova mentoring Lopez

Ivan Nova has served as a mentor to such young starters as Reynaldo López, and that includes trying to get Lopez to use his English during postgame interviews.

A smiling Lopez handed money to Nova after Wednesday’s game, when interpreter Billy Russo helped Lopez address the media; Nova explained the friendly wager’s origin on Thursday.

“I told him, ‘You need to speak English.’ It’s not that he doesn’t speak English. He does. But he’s kind of shy a little bit,” Nova said. “So we made a little bet. I gave him two options: ‘I’m going to give you a certain amount of money if you do the interviews in English after the games, and you’re going to give me 100 bucks if you don’t do it.’

“The amount that I put on it, he’s a little tentative, so he’s got to think about it. He goes, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it,’ because of the amount of money. Billy and some of the guys, they’re the witnesses to it.”

He said it

“He felt like he kind of earned his way back to the big leagues. He felt good about that.” -- Renteria, on Ryan Goins