Why Cease was critical of his performance, despite win originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
By most accounts, Dylan Cease did exactly what the White Sox needed on him on Saturday. He went as deep as he could into the game, while limiting the Tigers offense as much as he could, all on a conservative pitch count. The end result was five-plus innings of one-run ball, just one day after the bullpen was asked to cover five innings.
The performance earned praise from Tony La Russa and his teammates, but criticism from one man: Cease, himself.
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“Honestly, I don’t feel like my execution was that great today,” Cease said. “For me, I feel like my results were a little better than how I executed… But at the end of the day, I’d much rather it be that than the opposite, where I execute and the results aren’t good.”
High standards, considering Cease managed to strike out eight batters in his limited work, and really only ran into trouble in the fifth inning, when he walked two.
“I feel like I was a one-trick pony a little bit with the slider,” Cease said. “But we won, so it was solid.”
Only being able to fully command the one offspeed pitch was a bit of a change for Cease, who said he had better feel for his curveball and changeup in Spring Training.
“Sometimes you have those games where you kinda just got to compete with what you’ve got.”
With Lucas Giolito exiting Friday’s game early, and Lance Lynn on the shelf for at least a month, it was important for Cease to gut it out for the team’s first win. But it was also important given the improvements the Tigers made over the offseason to challenge the Sox in the division.
“They won in a good fashion yesterday,” Cease said. “But I think we showed that we’re still here.”
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