Twins pound Dylan Cease, White Sox

CHICAGO – Dylan Cease finally reached a tipping point.

Since joining the White Sox's rotation on July 3, Cease always has gotten himself into some early trouble. He’s also maintained his poise and worked out of it.

In his 10th start of the season for the Sox on Thursday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field, Cease was rocked again early. This time, he didn’t recover.

“Obviously, it wasn’t great results,” Cease said after the Twins pounded the Sox, 10-5. “They got a lot of hits.”

The American League Central leaders came out swinging, opening the game with five straight singles off Cease to take a 2-0 lead.

Cease started a 1-2-3 double play, and it looked as if he was going to keep the damage to a minimum in the first inning, but C.J. Cron followed with another single to put the Twins up, 4-0.

Minnesota added two more runs in the second inning, and Cease was pulled with no outs in the third after giving up home runs to Jake Cave and Cron.

Manager Rick Renteria has let the rookie right-hander go in earlier starts when he was hit hard early, but not Thursday.

“Honestly, I thought it would have been futile based on what we might be seeing or what I perceived might be the issue,” Renteria said.

Was tipping pitches “the issue?”

“It’s definitely possible,” Cease said after giving up eight runs in two-plus innings. “But at the end of the day, I know I have to execute pitches better.”

Renteria is going to look at video of the start to see if the Twins knew what Cease was going to throw. Catcher James McCann also is suspicious.

“Yeah, there are times where guys seem to be on every pitch, and it was kind of one of those days,” McCann said. “We’ll look at video and move on from there. Maybe that’s the positive take from today, ‘OK, we’re telling them what was coming.’ We make that adjustment and see how it goes next time.”

DAY OF REST

Tim Anderson looked a little sluggish in Wednesday night’s loss to the Twins, so the shortstop got Thursday off.

“Give him a break,” Renteria said. “He’s tired. He deserves a break. He’s been on base a lot. Coming back off his rehab, he was working very hard trying to get back. We put him straight into the lineup, just like we did with Eloy (Jiménez) and anybody else. He’s a little fatigued, so we’ll give him a breath.”

BROADCAST NEWS

Jason Benetti is going to be broadcasting college football games the next four Saturdays, so he’ll have a replacement in the Sox's TV booth.

Tom Paciorek sits in for Benetti on Friday and Saturday when the Sox play the Braves in Atlanta. Chuck Swirsky is the replacement when the Sox host the Angels on Sept. 6 and 7.

The next two weeks are undecided.